In his sermon 'Admonitions On Patience, Children, Media, and Prayer,' Steve Hopkins emphasizes the importance of building character in children through daily routines, underscoring the need for patience and the opportunity to teach about God. He references Deuteronomy 6:7, highlighting the constant teaching moments in everyday activities. Parents are encouraged to demonstrate humility and seek forgiveness when they err, modeling how to mend relationships. Hopkins warns against the influence of mindless media, advocating for filling children's minds with pure and virtuous content. He shares a personal anecdote about the impact of Bible reading on his grandson, reinforcing the power of positive influence. Finally, he reflects on the necessity of prioritizing Christ in daily life, challenging listeners to evaluate their commitment and the impact on their mental and emotional well-being.

You aren't just raising sons and daughters. You're building men and women. When you work with your children, and everyone, from the time that they're the youngest age, they should be working, finding things that they can do, that they can help, that they can be useful for in working around the house. When you work with them, be patient, and remember that you aren't just doing household chores, you aren't just doing yard work, You aren't just cleaning the house or doing laundry with your children, with your sons and your little daughters. You're teaching them about God.

Deuteronomy 6, 7 says when you rise up, when you lie down, when you sit in your house, when you go about your business during the day, you're teaching them about God. So remember that in all of these things that you're doing with your children, Be patient. You're teaching them how to respond to life's challenges, to life's trials, to life's difficulties. And each of these things that we go through is an opportunity to teach them and they're watching and they're learning. And like me, you know, it's often provided an opportunity to humble myself because, you know, inevitably we're going to fail before our children.

So even that is opportunities to be able to say, you know what, sorry, sorry for the way that I did that, the way that I responded there, the way that maybe you heard me talk to your mother, mother way you talked to your husband. Forgive me for that example, or forgive me for that example of how I responded to you, or how I responded in this particular trial or challenge of life. It gives us an opportunity to humble ourselves, to ask their forgiveness. It gives us an opportunity to teach them how to make amends, how to restore our relationships with others when we fail them. So I encourage everyone to keep up the good work.

I know I'm not telling anyone anything new and I'm learning from all of you as I see you raising your children. Number three, one of my favorite videos is of one of our grandsons sitting in his father's lap while he's reading the Bible to him. I go back and I watch this video so often because here's what's happening. He's sitting in his father's lap in this little video and he looks at the Bible and then he looks up at his dad reading. And he looks at the Bible, he's making this connection.

There's something here that dad's doing here, you know, and he's just watching and he's listening. And you know, I think we don't realize how much our children are getting. They're actually getting a whole lot more than we think that they're getting. And we need to be filling their minds with these good things and reading the scriptures to them and remembering to not let the day slip away. Oh Lord, help us not to let the day slip away.

Oh, I know you take videos of your children when they're your little ones and everything and it's so good. You're gonna wanna go back and watch those. You're gonna go back, you're gonna watch these videos, you're gonna think, oh, if I just could relive a couple of those days over again. We have them, I know. And I'm sure those who are old will know the same thing.

You just go, if I just could go back and just relive some of those days. Don't let them slip away from you. Fill their little minds with good things, whatsoever things are pure and just and true and praiseworthy. Don't let the competition from Disney and the mindless gobbledygook out there take away the time that they need in with you and the word and putting good things before them and and it may be something there may be good things that Disney has done that are good that can be put before them and they have historical stuff I'm not talking against all that but just fill their minds with the good things. You know, fill their little minds with the things that are pure and just and holy and good and righteous and teach them about God.

And there's no better way than to be telling them the stories of, you know, Daniel and the lion's den, he prays, you know, and he's told not to pray. And he goes ahead and prays anyway, right, because God says to, you know, and gets thrown a lion's den as a result of it. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bow down. No, I'm not. No, we're not going to bow down.

Everybody else is bowing down. We're not doing it. Three guys. We're not doing it. The prophets of Baal with Elijah.

If Baal is God, serve him. But if the Lord is God, then serve him. You know, fire falls from heaven. Their minds just need to be filled with all of these things and of course, apostles and Christ's miracles and all these things. Brothers and sisters, we also need to be careful about what we're putting into our minds throughout the day.

There's an old saying, You've heard it said, you are what you eat. And it's true, you are what you eat. So whatever we're bringing in, we need to be careful, just as we are with our children, with the media that we're consuming, and be careful and intentional and filling our minds and our households with virtuous things. And then lastly, I woke up one morning this past week and these words, I don't know if you're like me, but you'll have some of the most profound thoughts come to you the first thing in the morning, just something hits you. Well, these are the words that came to my mind first thing, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday morning, and it was just these words.

I thought you said Christ was first in your life. Wow, it was just like, okay. I thought you said Christ was first in your life. Is he? You know, we have to be intentional and proactive.

If he's first in my life, he gets the first things. He gets the first thoughts of my day. He gets the first minutes of my day. He gets the first words from my mouth in prayer. He gets the first meditations of my heart in the morning.

Is Christ in the first place? Things go better when Christ gets the first place in everything. Sometimes I think we get busy and we say, well, I'm too busy because I couldn't give Christ the first time of my day because, and sometimes just take a piece of paper and make a little blank there and say, this morning I couldn't give Christ the first part of my day because, and then write out what that because was. And then ask yourself, whatever it is in that blank, because, did things go better in that because you didn't given the first part of that day? You know, what about my mental and emotional state throughout the day?

I didn't get along with God this morning because whatever, Would my mental and emotional state have been better throughout the day? I think so. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. But that's what I woke up thinking. I thought you said Christ was first in your life