Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christians' armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, welcome back. Day three and what it means to be a godly dad. What I want to talk to you about today is this that the this discipleship of your kids is primarily your responsibility. It's not primarily your wife's responsibility. It's not even primarily your church's responsibility. That if you're at a healthy church, then the local church wants to partner with you to disciple your children, but your children's discipleship is primarily your responsibility, Dad. Now, involvement in the local church is so crucial. I'm going to give you two keys to disciple your kids. One, involvement in the local church. You see, because as your kids get older and they move from like kids to student ministry, most healthy student ministries are built around relationships with godly people. And in both my son and my daughter's life, I have a 20-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, and they are both walking closely with the Lord. And one of the primary reasons is because they have godly adults in their life. Now, your kids are going to get to a place in their life where they're not going to talk to you about everything anymore. And I know you think you're cool and they're going to talk to you about everything. It's just not true. You didn't talk to your dad about everything, and they're not going to talk about to you about everything. But you want to have godly people in their life that can steer them towards Jesus. It is your job to make sure that happens, okay? It is worth the fight. You make sure that your kids are involved in the local church so that they can have these relationships. Another primary pillar in the spiritual formation of your kids is one of the things that I did with my kids when, especially when they were young, is every night at bed, I would pray Bible verses over them. I prayed the same verses over my son and over my daughter every single night for, I mean, over a decade. Over JP, every night when he would go to bed, we would pray Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the way of the wicked or stand in the way of the sinner or seat in the seat of the scoffers, or sit in the seat of the scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of running water. It yields fruit in season, and its leaves never wither. In everything he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. I wanted this anchor of the truth of the word of God to be so deep in my boy that he knew that who he hung out with was going to determine the future of his life. My coach used to tell me, Show me your friends, I'll show you your future. And I wanted him to be surrounded, not by the counsel of the wicked, not with sinners, not with scoffers, but I wanted him to delight in the law of the Lord. I wanted him to be so rooted in the scripture that he realized there was a one-to-one relationship between his rootedness in the scripture, the friends he surrounded himself with, and the success that he saw in life. So I prayed it over him every single night. Today at 20 years old, he is walking strongly with the Lord. That has not always been the case, but he was raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And as he has gotten older, he is walking strongly with the Lord and surrounding himself still with his group leaders from high school and also with some godly young men. Over my daughter, almost every night of her life, I would pray Psalm 139. O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You hem me in behind me, before me, you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful me for me. It is high, I can cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I free from your presence? If I ascend to the heaven, you are there. If I make my bed and Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be as night, even the darkness is not dark to you, the night is bright as day, for darkness is as light to you. You see, I wanted Reagan Capri that no mat to know that no matter where she goes, she is not alone, that the Lord her God is with her and is for her. And then I had her memorize these next few verses. For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God, how vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I am still with you. You see, I know that my little girl lives in a world that tells her if she is not physically beautiful, then she is not lovable. I want her her to know that she is a work of God, that God doesn't make junk, that she is fearfully, that means reverently, and wonderfully made, and that she knows that full well. And so what I wanted to do is take the word of God in my children's life and anchor it so deep that when anything that did not smell like the truth entered their world, then they could smell it from a million miles away. Dads, I highly encourage you if you're raising kids, no matter how old they are, one, make sure they're surrounded by the right people, and two, pray the word of God over your children. It is where the power is.

Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.