On February 21st 2018 aged 99 Billy Graham passed into the presence of his Savior.
Graham preached the gospel to more people in person than anyone else in the history of Christianity. Over 210 million people in 185 countries heard Graham preach in person! Some estimate that around 2.5 billion have heard Graham preaching on T.V. or radio.
His impact on the USA and on the world is probably greater than we know and it can be easy to just focus on the numbers but what was it about Graham’s growing up years that produce such amazing spiritual results? Can we learn anything from how Billy’s mother and father brought him up that can help us raise children who will faithfully preach the Gospel? Let’s take a look at a few of the foundational factors of the family life of one of greatest Gospel preachers of our time.
One year and a day after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia William Franklin Graham Jr. was born on November 7th 1918, in a humble farmhouse near Charlotte, North Carolina. As a young child he had so much energy that once his mother took him to the doctor to find out what was wrong with him. There was nothing wrong, God had just given him more energy than usual! Thankfully Billy’s parents didn’t allow that energy to go to waste. The Grahams had 75 cows on their 300 acre farm. Every morning Billy would wake at 2:30 AM and be at the milking barn at 3:00 AM. It would take him about 1.5hrs to milk 20 cows. After school he would repeat the task. While it may not have always been pleasant to rise so early, Billy didn’t seem to mind, he understood the value of hard work.
Billy’s mother encouraged him to read and somehow he found time to read a lot growing up. He loved adventure books like Robin Hood and Tarzan. Nevertheless Billy’s grades in high school were not spectacular, he averaged a C. This may have been because he was often a little tired in school as a result of waking at 2:30 AM every morning.
The Graham family had high moral standards. Once, when Billy was a teenager Pedro, one of the hired workers on their farm, began to tell Billy about his sexual escapades. When Billy’s father heard of this he quickly fired Pedro.
When Billy was young prohibition was still in effect, however when he was 15 years old prohibition was ended and alcohol became legal. In order to prevent his children from drinking alcohol Billy’s father brought home two beers, one for Billy and one for his sister Catherine. To their shock he told them both to immediately drink the whole bottle of beer! Neither of them had ever tasted beer or alcohol in their lives and the experience of drinking an entire bottle of beer at once was not pleasant. Once they finished their father told them,
Thankfully, that seemed to work!
It’s without doubt that the moral example of and teaching of Billy’s parents guarded him from serious sin. Looking back on his life Billy also recognized how valuable his upbringing was:
“At times I entertained the same thoughts and desires as other adolescents my age, but the Lord used my parents’ strong love, faith, and discipline—as well as their teaching and example—to keep me on the straight and narrow path. It never really seemed right to me to have sex with anybody but the woman I would marry. Once in my senior year, when we were in a night rehearsal of a school play at Sharon High, one of the girls in the cast coaxed me aside into a dark classroom. She had a reputation for “making out” with the boys. Before I realized what was happening, she was begging me to make love to her. My hormones were as active as any other healthy young male’s, and I had fantasized often enough about such a moment. But when it came, I silently cried to God for strength and darted from that classroom the way Joseph fled the bedroom of Potiphar’s philandering wife in ancient Egypt.”
Moral training and Church going are one thing but a Christian home is more than just those two things. A Christian home is a place where the power and working of the Holy Spirit are demonstrated first of all in the lives of the parents. Billy writes of this power as he describes how his parents read the Bible and prayed during his growing up years.
“When they read the family Bible in our home, they were not simply going through a pious ritual. Mother told us that they had established a family altar with daily Bible reading the very first day they were married. They accepted that book as the very Word of God, seeking and getting heavenly help to keep the family together. Every time my mother prayed with one of us, and every time my parents prayed for their sons and daughters, they were declaring their dependence on God for the wisdom and strength and courage to stay in control of life, no matter what circumstances might bring. Beyond that, they prayed for their children, that they might come into the kingdom of God.”
Outside of the home the Grahams were faithful Church members, they never missed a Sunday. Although there were times as a child when Billy didn’t want to go to Church he knew better than to say anything. He later said that he knew that if he ever tried to avoid going to Church,
“they would have whaled the tar out of me.”
The Graham’s devout faith would later lead them to attend the evangelist outreaches of Baptist preacher Dr. Mordecai Fowler Ham in 1934. A youth of 16 years Billy didn’t particularly have an interest in spending his evenings glued to a chair listening to a boring preacher. He told his parents that he not would attend the meetings with them.
His parents went without him but a couple of weeks later Billy read and article in the newspaper about Dr. Ham’s preaching. The article indicated that Dr. Ham would be speaking out against some immoral practices of students in his high school. This peaked Billy’s interest and he along with a few other friends decided to attend the meetings to see what would happen.
What happened that evening was probably not what Billy expected. The crowd of several thousand listened intently as Dr. Ham read God’s Word and then began to expound upon the text. For some reason the preaching grabbed Billy’s attention too. He decided that he would return the next night.
Before this young Billy had never heard a sermon on hell or Christ’ second coming but Dr. Ham preached regularly on these topics. Although he had been in Church all of his life he was hearing parts of the Bible preached that he had never heard preached before. Dr. Ham spoke in no compromising terms about sin, hell, God’s holiness, and judgement and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
In his biography Billy Graham writes:
“As soon as the evangelist [Mordecai Ham] started his sermon, he opened his Bible and talked straight from his text. He talked loudly, even though there was an amplifying system. I have no recollection of what he preached about, but I was spellbound. In some indefinable way, he was getting through to me…
I became deeply convicted about my sinfulness and rebellion. And confused. How could this evangelist be talking to me, of all people? I had been baptized as a baby…I had gotten into mischief once in a while, but I could hardly be called wicked. I resisted temptations to break the moral code my parents had so strictly instilled in me…I was even the vice president of my youth group in our church (although, granted, it wasn’t a particularly vital organization)…
On the last verse of that second song, I responded. I walked down to the front, feeling as if I had lead weights attached to my feet, and stood in the space before the platform.
I checked “Recommitment” on the card I filled out. After all, I had been brought up to regard my baptism and confirmation as professions of faith too. The difference was that this time I was doing it on purpose, doing it with intention. For all my previous religious upbringing and church activity, I believe that that was the moment I made my real commitment to Jesus Christ.”
From this point on Billy never turn back from following Christ. He later graduated from high school and went on to attend Bible college where he grew in his knowledge of God’s Word and began to develop as a young preacher.
What is clear from Graham’s growing up years is that God used his parents built a strong Biblical foundation into his life. Without these formative years it’s doubtful that he would have blossomed into the great gospel preacher that he became. As parents what lessons from the Graham family can we apply to our own families?
Lesson #1 My faith as a parent is primary
Graham’s parents didn’t simply want their children to grow up to be good people, they wanted them to share the same faith that they had. We can’t give our children what we don’t have and thus, if we want to give them a living, power, and dynamic faith then we must exhibit that kind of faith in our own lives.
We can teach all kinds of Bible stories, we can take them to church, we can make then obey but unless our children see a real and living faith in us it is doubtful that they will respond positively.
2Ti 1:5
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
Lesson #2 My children need hard work and clear moral standards
Billy Graham was not coddled. His parents didn’t run circles around him making sure he had every toy he wanted and every comfort. Instead, they put him to work, they also set clear moral standards and stuck to them. Hard work doesn’t come naturally to most children it must be fought for and it must be exampled by us, the parents. A child who is busy with useful tasks will not only learn the value of work but he is often also kept from many sins simply because he doesn’t have time for them.
Cultivating a culture of hard work and strong morals is not easy in our internet age but it is vital if we want our children to go on to do great things in the Kingdom of God.
Pro 12:11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.
Lesson #3 There is power in reading God’s Word and praying together
Billy Graham himself acknowledged the vital role that family Bible reading and prayer had in his own life. Unfortunately, Computers, tablets, and smartphones have robbed families today of precious time together reading in Scripture and prayer.
Deu 6:6-7 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Lesson #4 Ultimately I must lead my child to faith Christ
Without repentance and the heart change that can only happen when a person believes in Jesus Christ our parenting will have little success. It seems that Billy parents understood this. That is why they attended the revival meetings of Mordecai Ham. It’s also why their prayed that their children might come into the Kingdom of God.
2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.