Being intentional in home and family government means each family member takes an active role to ensure the family functions and thrives. God created mankind in His image. God established marriage and family. When we know God and trust His Word, our lives reflect His perfect will, and our family becomes a living witness for His glory.

AC dives deeper into the previous episode's conversation on "Imitate," offering practical tips on how to encourage children to follow our godly example as parents. These are a few of many areas of opportunity for growth and maturity as a family.

**Correction at minute 22:46** Gal 6:8 → "For the one who sows to his own flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit."

Children imitate their family members. They turn into little copycats of the people they spend the most time with. As parents, we want to capitalize on what they see and hear during the most impressionable season of their development. We want them to imitate us as we imitate Christ.

It should not surprise us as parents when children try to avoid doing their assigned work. They will naturally want to cut corners and present less than their best if we allow them to. As parents, we must remember the work accomplished on the cross at Calvary and give our children the reasons why it matters to complete their assigned work. It is the discipline they will need later in life when the Lord calls them to do a mighty work in their generation.

A new game has developed in the Clark family household called "Arrest That Thought!" It came about as a way to help my daughters police their thoughts, filter what they see and hear in culture through the lens of Scripture, and put action to their professed faith.

To believe or not to believe is a question we as parents have been asking ourselves and our children often this year. As often as we encounter difficulty in the day-to-day, our faith is tested. We find ourselves in a proofing season that requires us to put hands and feet to what our lips profess. As often as the convictions of our heart move us to take action towards what we say we believe, we have to ask the hard question: do you believe?

The feet that carry the good news of the Gospel are blessed! Part of the Armor of God is the preparation of the Gospel of Peace. As our children grow in their relationship with Jesus and how we, as parents, witness and model Christ-likeness in the ministry of home and family, they will naturally desire to use their talents to glorify God. All we have to do is steward what bubbles out of a willing heart and resist the temptation of being a stumbling block in their life.

Warfare is a sensitive reality that is difficult to introduce and teach to children. The warfare we see and experience in the physical begins in unseen places. Fortunately for the Christian, Scripture outlines how to explain to our children why mankind wars with one another. How our nature was corrupted through the disobedience of one man, Adam, why humanity "wars" with God through its rejection of Jesus Christ, we war within our own flesh, and we war with our fellow man made in God's image. Physical and spiritual war has a stench. It is a foul odor. The enemy of our souls and the world loves it. Teaching our children the truth of what God says in Scripture at age-appropriate seasons is key to raising spiritually mature children prepared to face the hostilities of a fallen and broken world.