Have you ever heard the saying, “Monkey see, monkey do”? As it turns out, this saying is not just true about monkeys—but children as well. In a book called It’s Better to Build Boys than Mend Men by Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, a sentence stood out to me. Cathy wrote, “Children will never believe in the covenant of marriage unless they see you living it with their own eyes.” And you know, I think this is true for a lot of things—certainly marriage, but other things as well.

As a father, I wanted my boys to respect the covenant of marriage, so it was important for Pat and me to love and respect each other in a biblical way. I wanted the boys to keep their promises and hold true to their word, so I tried very hard to keep mine. I wanted them to evangelize and have a passion for spreading the Good News—so I tried to include them when I was doing so.

Of course, no parent is perfect, and I had my moments. God doesn’t call us to be perfect. Rather, God says in the book of John, “Whoever abides in me and I in him will bear much fruit.” By abiding in God’s Word and keeping close to Him in our hearts, our actions will mirror His values. And our children will learn from our example.                    

This is Luis Palau.