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.
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.
If you think about it, Christianity is about choices. When God gave us freedom to make choices, He also gave us the freedom to make good choices and bad choices. Sadly, most of us make more bad choices than good ones. It’s the reason Jesus had to die on the cross – for those bad choices that are sins.
How many times has your child begged for a special gift only to later break or lose it from carelessness? How many times a day do you have to remind your kids to do something you asked them to do or even complete regular chores? How many times have your kids promised to do something and then didn’t keep their promise?