Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for his name alone is exalted;
    his majesty is above earth and heaven.

- Psalm 148:12-13 (ESV)

What we want most for our children is for them to live as faithful followers of God. We want them to know God, to believe God, and to love God. We want them to make their marks on the world through their families, churches, jobs, and other activities, by showing the love of Christ in which they confidently live.

We only get a couple of decades of full-time effort to get them there. While this requires the work of the Spirit in their lives, God ordinarily uses parents and parenting to bring that work to fruition.

I appreciate how one author, acknowledging the many important things we need to teach our children about God, isolates two as particularly important for growth: "the sovereignty of God and an optimistic view of the future.*"

Without knowledge of God's sovereignty (Pro 16:33, Pro 16:9, Pro 21:1) our children will struggle to understand how their salvation (and the world's) is in his hands. Nor will they know love and gratitude as motivation for obedience. They won't know if they can trust the future.

That ties in to the other point: that we should teach our children to be theologically optimistic. Life is full of hardship and our kids will experience many difficulties with and without us around to help process them. What great help it is to face those difficulties with knowledge of God's unchangeable plans for the future! (We will be coheirs with Christ. The meek shall inherit the earth. No one can snatch us out of our Father's hand.)

In the flood of things we're supposed to be teaching our kids - many of which are good - it's comforting to know that the most important ones are those we should be daily teaching ourselves as well.  

* "Future Men," Douglas Wilson p.45