Introduction

1. Foundations for Fathers
• The Bible is sufficient.
• Discipline
• Covenantal Child‑Rearing
• Everything is the Father’s Responsibility
• Investing Time in the Little Years
• Review

2. Honoring the Weaker Vessel
• Initiating Love
• Image of Christ
• Honoring the Weaker Vessel
• Helper Comparable to Him
• Headship

3. What Discipline is For
• Setting the Standard
• Transgression
• Forgotten Standards
• Commands
• Preparing Your Children for Temptation

4. How to Discipline
• Painful Discipline
• Knowing Their Frame
• Consistent Discipline
• Swift Discipline
• House Rules

5. Raising Brothers and Sisters in Christ
• Pitfalls
• Bible as Doctrine
• Communication to Your Kids
• Informal and Formal Instruction

6. Paedobaptism?

Conclusion

Introduction (Early preview)

What are the basic foundations or preconditions for being a godly, biblical father? For any man seriously considering this crucial calling before God, the question is one that strikes deep. If we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, as Paul instructs us in Philippians, what should our reaction be when we are entrusted with a role that has such a huge influence on the salvation of others?

We will begin by addressing the basic question, which would be the foundations or preconditions of fatherhood. Having done this, we will move on in the second chapter to how a man can lead his wife in this calling. How can he encourage her in bringing up young children? How can he provide her with the guidance, instruction, boundaries, support, and encouragement that she needs?

The next task will be on how a husband and wife can stay out of an adversarial relationship with one another when it comes to how the kids are being brought up. It is easy to drift into a situation where the wife is “protecting” the kids from their dad and his strictness, or the husband is “protecting” them from their mom and her mollycoddling. Parents can get tangled up when they have different standards, or when they have the same standards applied with different emphases.

The third chapter is going to be on how to set standards for young children. What should a father’s standards be? What should our expectations be? Does it vary with age? If it does vary, what changes? And if not, what doesn't change?

In the next chapter we're going to address methods of discipline for young children. How should fathers go about discipline? And how do fathers teach and encourage their wives in this? This is frequently a problem—a lot of times women will go through the motions of a discipline that doesn't have the intended effect. This is because the husband is not backing her up, or because she doesn't know how to discipline properly.

In the fifth chapter, the subject will be doctrinal instruction of young children, how to teach them the truth of Christianity so that they grow up thinking like Christians.

And in our last chapter, we are going to address the balance that Christian parents must maintain when it comes to basic gospel truth. How is it possible to have the kids to grow up in a covenantal home, where they are being brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? How do we raise the kids so they grow up not remembering a time when they were not Christians; while at the same time having the home be robustly evangelical, where everyone understands the absolute necessity of the new birth? There are some who assume these emphases are in tension, or even in contradiction, but I want to argue that genuine parental faith dissolves all such tensions.

There is one more thing to mention here, which I would consider to be something of a gospel paradox. Fathers who take their responsibilities seriously before God are endeavoring to bring up their daughters as future women of God, and their sons as future men of God. Loving, teaching, correcting, encouraging, nourishing . . . all of it is directed at shaping the hearts and minds of these little ones who have been entrusted to you. And then, when the process is well along, say when the kids are in their teens, you start to realize that the primary person who has been shaped by all of this is . . . you.

To help your sons grow up into men of God is to become a man of God. By teaching your sons to take responsibility, you are taking responsibility. By encouraging them in their love for God and His Word, you are being established in a love for God and His Word. You and your children both are all enrolled in the same school . . . true, they are in first grade and you are in junior high, but it is still the same school.

Put it all together, and we are talking about a primer in the basic principles of Fathercraft.