“Quitters never win and winners never quit.” As parents, we often refuse to allow our children to quit things in an effort to teach values like perseverance and respect. Yet, I would argue that at times the best parenting advice I can give you is for you to quit things.
Why? Because parenting can become competitive. We can get so caught up in making sure our children keep up with their peers and that we are doing what our peers are doing, that we lose sight of our goals and core values. The world’s parenting values are very different from God’s. Most parents focus on having kids who are happy and financially successful. God’s top priority is for your children and all of your descendants to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.
If you want your priorities, values, goals and results to mirror those of God for your children, you cannot parent like all of the other parents. You need extra time for your kids to be taught about everything God wants them to know. They need to be trained, not casually, but as an Olympic athlete, to live the life God wants for them. That can’t happen if you do what all the other parents do, because the average parent only spends about 5-10 minutes a day talking to their children and most of that is logistical type conversations.
So, that brings us back to quitting. To carve out enough time for your children to be nurtured, taught and coached by you, you will probably have to quit something. Quite possibly several somethings. Your kids will probably need to quit a few things, too. That doesn’t mean you stay locked in your house, studying the Bible 24 hours a day. Sometimes the lessons are best taught by interacting with the world as a family. But regardless of how or where you teach those lessons, they must be taught.
I can’t tell you what to quit. For some, it may mean a job change. For others, it may mean cutting out activities or reducing the level of involvement. It may mean quitting time wasters, like gaming and watching content. It may even be a fun quitting, like reducing the number of times a week you do certain chores!
Quitting isn’t always easy. It can require difficult conversations and feel like a huge sacrifice. You don’t need to quit everything, but you have to quit something if you are not able to spend daily quality time teaching and training your children to be faithful, productive Christians. The stakes are just too high to let other things fill that crucial time.