Parenting 101
I've grown up with the saying practice makes perfect. We'll I'm practicing being a perfect parent and perfection ain't coming!!
I will share though, a few suggestions that will help you in raising your kids to be liked by others, not just you and to hopefully give them the tools to become upstanding adults.
1. Be and teach your kids to be consistant.
Here's a couple questions to see where you are at with this.
Do you kids obey you the first time you give them an instruction? Do your kids act the same when you are not around as they do when you are around?
Now let me state right off the bat, incase you are just finding this blog for the first time that no one is perfect.
We all know the verse,... we all like sheep have gone a stray... and by the way I just heard Leon Fontaine say " and sheep bite! "
And yes we all sin and fall short.
What are we teaching our kids if we stop at them simply performing the act of obedience? Anyone can obey. But God looks at the motives behind obedience.
1 Chronicles 28:9"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.
1 Corinthians 4:5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.
If our children obey but are not happy about it , give attitude about it, or do it to suck up, we are doing them more harm than good.
A child's only responsiblity is to obey their parents in the Lord. I tell my kids all the time, you don't have to worry about anything you don't have to do anything other than obey dad and me.
I am not a perfect parent and I say that to my kids and I apologize when I screw up and ask them to forgive me. Not that I want to screw up but I model what they need to do when they do screw up.
I just read the other day in Galatians and here's what Paul says regarding consistancy, "It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you." Here's another one in 2 Corinthians "Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present."
As Paul talks about, teach your kids to be consistant whereever they are, whoever they are with.
That's pretty straight up.
Train your kids to "first time obedience" Don't count. You've said the instruction already. It is their job to obey right away and completely. And even with a "yes mom" and a smile. Ok sometimes the last two don't always happen but that's what we need to work towards.
Think about what examples we would be if we obeyed God but didn't have a good attitude or a "yes God :)" mentality. Who would want to be followers of us? With the same attitude we should be obeying God, our kids should be obeying us.
It's not an instant thing. It means work and training their hearts and helping them with their attitudes. It will take a whole lot of prayer and you, the parent, will have to give them consequences if they do not obey.
And please, make sure you talk to them and let them know what you expect and what the consequences will be if they do not obey the first time before you impliment anything. :)
To summarize
Be consistant and teach your children to be consistant.
Let your yes be yes and your no, no.
Bring your child to first time obedience, with good attitudes.
Lord be with us as parents help us to do our part to obey you and teach our children to obey us as you have commanded that they do. Forgive us when we fail and help us to get the support we need to accomplish this great task.
Running this exhausting race with you.
Alanne.
I will share though, a few suggestions that will help you in raising your kids to be liked by others, not just you and to hopefully give them the tools to become upstanding adults.
1. Be and teach your kids to be consistant.
Here's a couple questions to see where you are at with this.
Do you kids obey you the first time you give them an instruction? Do your kids act the same when you are not around as they do when you are around?
Now let me state right off the bat, incase you are just finding this blog for the first time that no one is perfect.
We all know the verse,... we all like sheep have gone a stray... and by the way I just heard Leon Fontaine say " and sheep bite! "
And yes we all sin and fall short.
What are we teaching our kids if we stop at them simply performing the act of obedience? Anyone can obey. But God looks at the motives behind obedience.
1 Chronicles 28:9"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.
1 Corinthians 4:5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.
If our children obey but are not happy about it , give attitude about it, or do it to suck up, we are doing them more harm than good.
A child's only responsiblity is to obey their parents in the Lord. I tell my kids all the time, you don't have to worry about anything you don't have to do anything other than obey dad and me.
I am not a perfect parent and I say that to my kids and I apologize when I screw up and ask them to forgive me. Not that I want to screw up but I model what they need to do when they do screw up.
I just read the other day in Galatians and here's what Paul says regarding consistancy, "It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you." Here's another one in 2 Corinthians "Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present."
As Paul talks about, teach your kids to be consistant whereever they are, whoever they are with.
2. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
There's also the verse Matthew 5:37Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.That's pretty straight up.
Train your kids to "first time obedience" Don't count. You've said the instruction already. It is their job to obey right away and completely. And even with a "yes mom" and a smile. Ok sometimes the last two don't always happen but that's what we need to work towards.
Think about what examples we would be if we obeyed God but didn't have a good attitude or a "yes God :)" mentality. Who would want to be followers of us? With the same attitude we should be obeying God, our kids should be obeying us.
It's not an instant thing. It means work and training their hearts and helping them with their attitudes. It will take a whole lot of prayer and you, the parent, will have to give them consequences if they do not obey.
And please, make sure you talk to them and let them know what you expect and what the consequences will be if they do not obey the first time before you impliment anything. :)
To summarize
Be consistant and teach your children to be consistant.
Let your yes be yes and your no, no.
Bring your child to first time obedience, with good attitudes.
Lord be with us as parents help us to do our part to obey you and teach our children to obey us as you have commanded that they do. Forgive us when we fail and help us to get the support we need to accomplish this great task.
Running this exhausting race with you.
Alanne.
You're not kidding; exhausting!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for offering up wisdom to the rest of us.
I'm glad to be running with you.
:)