Encouraging parents in their efforts to raise their children to be enthusiastic servants of the Lord.
“That’s baaaad!” I’ll never forget how amazing we thought we were, because our parents had to keep asking if we meant “bad, bad” or “good, bad” when we told them something was “bad”.
Each generation has its own slang terms that change as soon as adults start understanding and using the words. It’s just part of establishing a healthy distance between parents and their kids.
Continue reading Is Miscommunication Making Parenting Your Kids Tougher Than Necessary?
When our daughter was little, someone asked her if she wanted a sibling. She looked at them seriously, “No, I’m good. Siblings just get you in trouble a lot!” She was actually pretty wise. I’m sure there is some expensive study somewhere, but I would imagine a huge percentage of parental correction involves sibling issues.
It’s easy to understand how sibling issues begin. A child who has been the center of his parents’ universe for two or three years suddenly has a baby sibling who gets the attention of everyone, all of the time! Or an older sibling thinks their seniority means they can force younger siblings to do their bidding. Or a younger sibling thinks they should get extra everything because they were last on the scene. If you have siblings, I’m sure you could add to the list.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed in parenting. The demands on our time and energy seem never ending. Christian parenting can begin to feel like an unnecessary added burden. As a Christian parent, you don’t just feel responsible for keeping your kids alive and making sure they are somewhat decent people, capable of eventually facing the adult world. You now feel this additional responsibility to do everything anyone suggests, so you can be relatively confident your kids go to Heaven for eternity!
No wonder many parents just shut down! Denial seems a lot easier than all of the extra work it appears to take to raise your kids to become strong, faithful, productive Christians. After all, you can barely get them to brush their teeth on most days.
If you parent a toddler, your day is filled with questions. It’s one of the many ways young children explore the world around them and begin to understand it better. Millions of words have probably been written about the questions of children. We don’t often talk, though, about the questions parents should ask. I guess we view parenting as more of an ongoing lecture or a string of requests and commands.
There are a lot of questions you need to ask your kids. Most of them you probably ask daily like “Did you brush your teeth?” or “Have you finished your homework?”. There is one question I am beginning to realize many parents don’t ask nearly enough. For Christian parents it is an essential question, because it helps you get to the heart of the situation more easily. Christian parenting after all, is a focus on shaping the hearts of our children so they will seek and obey God.
Continue reading What’s the One Question Every Christian Parent Should Ask?
Want your kids to be more obedient? Want them to make more godly choices? Want them to have healthier relationships? Want them to do well in school, work or almost anything they undertake? Self-control is the key.
I don’t know why we don’t talk about it more, but self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Which tells me several things:
So what are some things you can do to help your kids practice self-control? You might think practicing self-control would be boring, but your kids will enjoy doing these activities.