In this hectic society that we live in today, the education of our children has often become an issue that causes much anxiety and headaches. To allow our children to develop to the best of their capabilities, parents often  try all ways and means to keep the children fully occupied, and sadly this has usually ended up in vain.

As Christians, parents do face the same stress on the education of their children. But, what can Christian parents do to ensure the children grow up God-fearing and observe God's Word in this hectic challenging society? Some parents purchase Bible story books for their children to read, hold a family worship once in a blue moon, and make a simple prayer before bedtime every day. But are all these enough?

In today’s program, we shall hear the testimonies of Michelle’s son, Josh and daughter, Priscilla. Let us learn some lessons through their childhood and growing up process. Of course, through their sharing, I also hope more young friends see and learn what a wonderful thing is it, to know our Lord Jesus Christ.

When Josh was young, his parents taught him to read the Bible and led him to know Jesus Christ. So, when he was growing up, he learnt to pray to God especially when he was facing with big decision to make. He would ask God if this is the path that He has prepared for him. Is this the road which He wanted him to go? If yes, he would follow His plan. And he experienced God’s guidance one after another and received His countless blessings.

Josh said, "When faced with difficulties, we need to work hard, but what we need the most is to come before God to seek His will. God is mighty and wise and He will open and lead us to the best path."

Even before Josh turned 1 year old, Michelle and her husband would tell him Bible stories every night. Josh has already lost count of the number of Bible stories that he had listened so far, but he remembered the content of each one of them clearly. And, when Josh managed to sit right up by himself, his father started the weekly family worship. Not long after he turned 7, he started his Bible correspondence lessons. The continuous learning helped him to stay rooted in God’s Words and build his character. Through reading the Bible, Josh learnt how to care for others. When his parent was sick, he would fetch them water and fruits. He also learnt to love those who are unloving. When he was in primary school, he had a classmate who was unkempt in appearance and messy with his things. Being a child who loves to be tidy and clean in nature, Josh found it hard to tolerate this particular classmate. He then came before God to pray and ask God to help this classmate; he also asked God to give himself more love, so that he could learn to accept and love this classmate of his.

Josh decided to accept Jesus as his own personal savior when he was eight years old. After that, he experienced God’s presence more deeply. During his time in Primary 3, he remembered there was once when he was playing badminton with his friend. When it was his turn to start the ball, the shuttlecock got stuck on the tree. His immediate response was to throw his shoes at the tree, in hope to dislodge the shuttlecock. The first shoe missed, but the second shoe hit the spot. But guess what happened? Not only did the shuttlecock dropped, but a beehive came along with it as well! All the bees swarmed out of the beehive at once. His friend started running around barefoot and amazingly, the bees only chased after his friend, but not him. At that time, Josh prayed and asked God to protect his friend. Around 5 minutes later, his friend ran towards him and told him: “Josh, I saw the bees disappearing one by one when I was running." Josh knew that God had listened to his prayers as He protected his friend.

There was also another incident which left a deep impression in Josh’s heart. When he was in Primary 3, his class changed 3 Chinese teachers in total. Josh was not used to it and started to hate this subject. Whenever he was doing his Chinese subject homework, he would tell himself three words, which was “confirm cannot do!” With this negative mindset and attitude, Josh naturally did not score well for the subject. Not long afterwards, from his family Bible study, he learnt that he should have a positive learning attitude. God is a powerful God and those who rely on Him will receive help from Him. Having understood this, Josh started to pray and ask God to change his learning attitude.

In the two years that followed, he experienced God’s work in him. God changed Josh's attitude towards Chinese; He also arranged a helpful Chinese tutor for him and gave him a Christian Chinese teacher when he was in Primary 4 and 5. Both the teacher and the tutor were very caring and encouraging; and all these helped Josh to gain more self-confidence and to motivate his interest towards Chinese again. Josh made huge improvements on this subject indeed. Recalling this incident, Josh felt that through family and church Bible study, God has helped him build a positive attitude and correct moral values.

When Josh was in Secondary 3, he was troubled by this question of where he was going to study after his ‘O’ Level. He kept praying, asking God for his guidance and a clear direction. After fervently praying, he saw that God wanted to bring him to Australia to study high school; that’s also where his grandparents live. Josh shared this news with his parents and they suggested that he choose his school based on the below 4 criteria.

1.​ Must be academically good

2.​ Have good discipline

3.​ Have a Track and Field club

4.​ School must be near to Josh grandparents' house

Having heard the above criteria, Josh honestly thought there would be no such a school. However, after extensive research and many phone calls to the various high schools, Josh’s aunty came back with two options. And which one should they choose? Very soon, they came to know that the school fees for one of the school was extremely expensive as it was a private school. Also, there has been a series of bullying cases occurring in that school. It would seem obvious that there was only one choice left. But Josh still felt uncertain about it. Since it was such a big move, he needed more assurance, hence he prayed for a clear sign that this was indeed the school God has prepared for him to go. Not long after that, Josh’s dad and his work-partner met up on a business trip overseas. While they were having a casual chat, his partner suddenly said that he was very busy packing then because he was rebuilding his house and so would need to temporarily move into a new neighbouring suburb. And this suburb was near where Josh’s school was. Why is this significant? In Australia, to get into a state school, one would need to live within the school’s catchment area. Thus, Josh’s dad took the opportunity to ask his partner if he would be willing to be Josh’s guardian. Guess what? Without any hesitation, he agreed! The story however did not end here, because the school also required that the guardian stayed a minimum of 12 months within the catchment area. And they again called his partner to confirm how long he would be staying in the neighbouring suburbs. The answer? 12 months. This answer gave Josh his long-awaited satisfaction, assurance and confidence from God that this was indeed the path God wanted him to take. Josh saw God’s work and his faith deepened in God. He thanked God for every new direction in life and his heart felt peace. Step by step, he follows God’s step faithfully.

“If we do not see God's hand, we trust God’s heart.”

Priscilla’s testimony

"Hi, I am Priscilla! I am 16 years old this year and is currently studying in Secondary 4. When I was 1 month old, my parents took me to church. I like to tell you how blessed I am by God. He protected me, watched over me and is my help in times of need. I hope that you can get to know Jesus Christ and be greatly blessed by Him too!

When Priscilla was 1 month old, Michelle placed her in the church children Sunday School, like the brother Josh. Besides, Michelle instructed the helper at home to read bible stories to Priscilla every night. From 7 years of age till 13 years old, Priscilla has been doing the many Bible correspondence courses which Michelle bought for her. In the weekly family worship, Priscilla and her brother would lead the Praise & Worship session. As she grew older, she started memorising Bible verses before each dinner, including the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s creed.

In 2011, Michelle worked out a one-year Bible reading plan, and for the first time, Priscilla had the chance to complete reading the Bible by herself at the age of 10, although without full understanding!

Since 2012, she started to have her own quiet devotion time, completely away from Bible storytelling. Under the guidance of her parents, this little young girl grew closer to God. Priscilla herself admitted that if not for her parents' intentional mentoring of her spiritual health and growth, she would have grown up to be a self-centered, disrespectful, ill manners and easily discouraged child. Thank God that today, she is known to be a forgiving and loving angel in her family. All these that she learnt from Jesus Christ and in turn, she hope to share with her friends to learn to obey the teaching of parents. Although sometimes, she still makes her parents upset, she has learnt to apologize immediately, either via messaging or personally telling her mum that she is sorry that she has done a wrong thing and asked for forgiveness. Priscilla also realized that not only does she need to believe in Christ, she needs to live out Christ in both her behavior and speech.

Besides reading the Bible, Priscilla has also cultivated the habit of praying regularly, with the help of her parents when she was younger. Through prayers, she encountered God’s protection, presence and help, be it in circumstances like difficulties in learning, test and examinations, bullying by her classmates et cetera. One incident left a deep impression on Priscilla. In January 2012, Priscilla and her friends were playing at the playground when one of her friends challenged her to perform a whole-round flip on a single bar. Although she could not do it, she went ahead. Suddenly Priscilla found herself sitting on the playground floor. She had fallen and fractured her right arm, and her lips were bleeding profusely. She was very angry with herself after the accident and felt that it was all her friend's fault for bullying her. On the way to the hospital, she had a quiet time to herself and she prayed. She heard God’s voice talking to her and she instantly experienced this God who would speak to people. God reminded her that although her friend was at fault, she herself was also at fault. And God let her see that He had also protected her in this accident as He prevented her from suffering even more serious injury and possible death.

This incident served as an important milestone in Priscilla’s spiritual growth. Priscilla now believes without a doubt that God is real and He is alive. She always shares with her friends that when they need someone to talk to when no one will listen, there is no need to be upset because God will always listen to us. There is no need to feel stressed out or be too formal or rigid when we talk to God, but just relax and do not hurry. Calm down and take your time, start talking to him as a companion, a good friend who is always beside you and He will listen to you.

Being persistent and systematically, Josh and Priscilla’s parents taught their children to learn God’s Words. They let them memorized scripture verses in the morning; set aside personal devotion time at night; their dad led the family worship once a week and mum led the Bible study every night when they were young. The family continue relentlessly in their pursuit of God’s Words. Although this persistence does not come easy, from the testimonies of Josh and Priscilla, we see that it is well worth