Good Parenting

As a grandfather of three I now get to look at my children and watch them raise their kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord just as my wife and I tried diligently to do with our children. Admittedly as parents some things we did pretty well and some things we did not. Here I desire to share a few of the things the Lord taught us as we learned to parent over time. The first and perhaps the most important thing about raising kids we learned was mold their hearts. By bringing them to Jesus and letting the Holy Spirit develop their heart into one that lives and works out of a personal desire to serve God our children became people who obeyed God out of love and not out of expectation of God’s blessing. When a child is expecting blessing they learn to do what brings them a reward. They begin to forget about walking through life in a loving caring graceful way and become task oriented and the task they will be oriented to will be the one that produces personal reward even at the cost of others’ feelings, needs and good.

The second principle for raising kids is model the life of a person who walks in the way of Jesus. When kids see Mom & Dad do things, to them it is a powerful approval of that which is done. Parents are the first authority a child learns. To the little one’s mind the parent is a god, so your behavior becomes the standard for life. If you do something so will they no matter what you say. The old saying “don’t do as I do, do as I say” becomes worthless babble.

Next teach them truth. The only place absolute truth can be found is in the Bible. All other cultural and social norms are subject to the people with the loudest voices. Read the Bible learn what it means then live it and speak it to the young ones in your home. Another piece of advice is discipline yourself out of a job. Find the method of discipline that works with each individual child then use that discipline to develop them into good decision makers who are self-motivated.

Finally pray for your children as though their lives depend on it because it does. Ask God to give them wisdom, protect them from evil, show them the way of Jesus and to send them a mate who will bring out the best in them later in life. Don’t just assume your kids will turn out all right. Children are complicated and need lots of quality time. Many advertisers, religions and social movements are coming after them. You need to protect them and point them toward being the gracious, loving, caring, productive person God created them to be.