PARENTING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS
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Parenting is series business, in my opinion its also risky business. You are always asking yourself, Am I doing this right? Is he learning a lesson from this? Does he know my unconditional love for him? Did I just waste a million of his brain cells on Barney for a half hour? Constantly I am struggling with these questions, and from what I am told they never go away, they just turn into more difficult questions.
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We need to get an objective with our children, where or what is our target in parenting.
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"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Luke 2:52
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Our kids lives need to reflect Jesus. Some how we need to get clarity ( I don't even know what that word means anymore). There is so much parenting advice out there that messes up all the clarity you once thought you had. If you are anything like me, I get about 5 emails a day on different moms and babies websites, atleast 1 magazine a week, not to include the books I will read, then you have the doctors telling you what you should do, and don't dare turn on your TV in chance you may catch Dr. Phil or 60 minutes telling what all you did wrong raising your child. Then you have your friends and family...which I think is the best advice/help you can get. So looking to God to help you find your clarity and reading his word is something we (I mean me, but I can't be alone, atleast I hope not) need to focus more on. We need to trust him to take over, go by his guidelines for parenting.
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I am completely aware that all this is so much easier said then done. I am sure with in an hour I will be asking my self now what, how am I going to deal with this situation, and not even think about praying about it. But that is where our objective on how to raise our kids comes into play. Matt and I need to sit down and discuss and come up with a mutual agreement on all of this....soon, before I loose my mind!
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TO BE LIKE OUR HEAVENLY FATHER...
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1. I must understand my children.
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we must know you children's strenghts and weaknesses, they are different from child to child. We must know I children, and I mean KNOW them, not what we think we should know about them. Remember when you were a teenager, I am sure you thought your parents knew nothing about you or what you were going through...I know mine didn't, atleast that is what I thought. An interesting stat for ya, 90% of teenagers said there parents don't understand them. That is really high. I want Ryan to be in that 10%, I know we all do. We have to study our kids, everyone one of them have a purpose and meaning.
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"a patient man has great understanding" Proverbs 14:29
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2. I must accept my children
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"The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich to love" Psalm 145:8
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3. I must discipline my children.
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"The Lord disciplines those he loves..." Hebrews 12:6
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Direction/discipline is driven by love, if we don't do those then we don't really love our children. That is a harsh statement, but I think it is true. If you don't discipline your children, then you are just setting them up for failure as adults. And I know none of us want that. I had a teacher in high school ( well a couple were like this) , but this one really sticks out. I thought she really disliked me my junior year, she was so hard on me, would make me re-do things. I would talk back to her and just be really mean, and refuse to do things. Well my senior year came around, I knew I would have her again, she was my Health Occ. teacher so I knew I would have her both years. Well, my senior year was different. I did much better, I guess you can say I matured a bit, and she wasn't as mean or strict with me. I asked her one day, why she was so mean to me and would give me such a hard time, and she said she knew I could do much better if I would apply myself and the only way she could show me this is through discipline. I remember that moment like it was yesterday. It has made a huge impact on my life, it did that day. She signed my yearbook "He broke the mold when he made you". Some of the stuff she had done for me, made me who I am today. I am sure she had this effect on many of her students.
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4. I must express my love to my children.
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6 ways to express love
- saying the words "I love you", they are the most powerful words in the dictionary.
- affirming them- even if they fail, its okay as long as they try.
- investing in our marriage.
- giving them our attention.
- having fun with them.
- passing on our faith.
Well that was our service on Sunday, I hope all of you are enjoying it as much as I am. If you actually want to listen to Pastor Paul give the sermon you can go to http://www.metrocommunitychurch.com/
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