Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Week 14: Chapter 13 — Appealing to the Child's Conscience
Read Chapter 13 of Shepherding a Child's Heart. Primary Scripture: Romans 2:14-15; Hebrews 10:22.
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One of the most important and underused tools in a parent's toolkit is the child's own conscience — the inner voice that God has written on every human heart. This chapter teaches parents how to engage and cultivate that conscience rather than bypass it.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Tripp argues that God has given every child a conscience — an inner moral sense — and that good parenting works with that conscience rather than around it. What does it look like to 'appeal to the conscience' rather than simply issuing commands or applying consequences?
2.He warns that parents who always manage behavior through external pressure (rewards and punishments) actually weaken the child's conscience over time. Why? What is being lost when children only obey because of external incentives?
3.Romans 2 describes the conscience as the law written on the heart — a gift of common grace. But Tripp also acknowledges that the conscience can be hardened, misinformed, or overridden. How do parents both respect the conscience and help form it toward truth?
a.What are some ways a child's conscience can be malformed or suppressed?
b.What role does Scripture play in calibrating the conscience toward God's truth?
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