Made New: A 15–Day Devotional on Colossians 3 With Jada EdwardsSample

Note: This day is not just for parents. If you don’t have children, consider the ways you can serve and honor your own parents or friends with children.

In our passage today, Paul encourages children to obey their parents, “for this pleases the Lord.” Parents love to show this verse to their kids, but the larger principle of honoring authorities holds for adult children as well. In our final devotional, Jada explains the impact our new identity in Christ has on the way we interact with our parents and children.

Reflect

Our relationship with Christ should change all our relationships, including the relationship between parents and children. We should be just as patient, kind, and generous with our children and parents as we are with our spouses. How has your faith influenced the way you relate to your parents or parental figures? If you are a parent, in what ways do you see your faith impacting how you raise your children?

Jada compared a healthy, godly family to rich soil that has been cultivated to grow thriving plants. Your family relationships should spiritually nourish one another and cause each other to grow toward Jesus. How would you describe the “spiritual soil” of your family right now? If you are a parent, what practices could help form your children according to God’s Word?

Respond

Remarkably, God speaks to both children and adults in our passage today. He shows His care for all of us, regardless of age or rank, in establishing His norms and showing us what godly living looks like.

If your mom, dad, or parental figure is still living, think through their current situation. Perhaps they are elderly and need support, whether financial, emotional, or physical. Maybe you are a young adult with healthy parents, or perhaps one of them is sick. Our situations will all be different. But we can all express respect and love to our parents. Pick one tangible way you can serve your parents.

If you are parenting children at home, reflect on the spiritual soil of your family. Start a new activity in your home to further their spiritual development, such as teaching them how to pray or reading the Bible with them.

As new people, empowered by the Spirit, we can live in holiness and wisdom. Jada’s teaching from Colossians 3 offers us practical ways to put God’s Word into practice each day.

Go back and read all of Colossians 3 in one sitting. Keep what you’ve learned through this study in mind as you ask the Spirit to show you how to apply this book to your life.

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