Years ago, when my wife and I had our first child, we had a decision to make. In fact, we had a whole lot of decisions to make. One of those decisions was, how are we going to teach our children the difference between right and wrong, and how would we administer this teaching? We decided very early on to be consistent in our teaching and in our delivering of benefits or consequences to one’s actions.
We decided to administer first time obedience with our children. Once they knew what we expected of them, if they chose not to obey the very first time, they would receive a consequence for their disobedience. My wife and I agreed long before the offense what this consequence would be, and we also agreed that if we were not consistent with our children in administering this consequence then my wife and I were the ones at fault because we were allowing our children to continue disobeying us without said consequence being administered. We decided to take responsibility for our own actions.
For instance, if I came home after working and was sitting in my chair in the family room relaxing and decided I was too tired to administer the consequence or discipline when an offense occurred, then I was now becoming a part of the problem because I was not teaching our children the difference between right and wrong. If I was “too tired” to parent, well, I was in the wrong. Why? Because the God of the Bible had given my wife and me these children and had chosen us to raise them in His good and right ways. By us not taking responsibility in training them up in His ways, we were teaching them that our comfort was more important than following God and His ways. Let me dig into this idea just a bit.
Years ago, a friend of mine told me, “I have come to realize that if there is a son problem, there is more than likely a daddy problem going on.” Ouch! But that is so true. It’s not that fathers are bad or are not needed, it’s that we as fathers need to take responsibility for our actions and be willing to show our children what is good and right and true in every circumstance. In fact, when we do mess up, that is a great time to show your children what true humility really looks like.
I praise God that He sent me an amazing woman into my life who is a very strong-willed Christ follower and yet also understands the importance of working together as a team in our marriage. This means that even when she thinks my leading might be too tough or strong, she still honors my decision because we made decisions together long before we got into the situation. We believe character is not built in trials, character is tested in trials; it is built before the trial begins. This goes for not only someone in raising a child but also on a very personal note for each person in this world as well.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
0 comments:
Post a Comment