Once when I was little, I complained about a disagreement my parents were having. My parents looked at me and said, “Take notes. You will fight with your spouse one day and you need to know your marriage will survive it.” It’s funny how we as parents want to protect our children from any ugliness in their lives. I have known parents who absolutely refuse to ever let their children hear them arguing. It may be fine in childhood, but then you have raised a child who thinks spouses should never fight. After all, his didn’t!
It may sound far fetched, but I have encountered many adults who thought an argument meant they had a bad marriage because their parents had “never fought”. Unfortunately, we are even more likely as parents to hide the ugly side of Christianity from our children. We then raise children who question the concept of church and even God when they encounter their first ugliness in a Christian or a congregation.
Parents fight. If they don’t, there are other serious problems involved. Two people cannot live together for that many years and never disagree about anything or want to get their own way. Churches too are filled with people. Yes, they are Christians trying to follow God’s Word (granted perhaps some more than others!), but they are still sinful people in need of a Savior. Baptism doesn’t suddenly make you perfect. It makes you forgiven and saved.
Continue reading Letting Kids See the Ugly Side of Christianity
Proverbs is one of the Bible books I encourage kids and teens to read first when they attempt independent Bible reading. Proverbs is an awesome book. I know, every book in the Bible is wonderful, Proverbs is special. I love it because it is full of hundreds of tiny bits of wisdom, any of which can be life and eternity changing for those who heed them.
Isn’t it interesting one of, if not the most important job in the world comes with little or no training? For all of the jokes of a “Mom manual”, there really isn’t one official training program to help new moms. So, we take the few classes suggested by our ob/gyn and read one of those “What to Expect” books. Really proactive (or possibly neurotic in my case) parents may even read a book on Christian parenting. Then that precious little one appears on the scene.
by Melinda Means and Kathy Helgemo. The authors do a wonderful job of covering a lot of topics many parenting books skip entirely. Whether it is acknowledging your personality type as a part of parenting , scheduling your dream fulfillment or examining your priorities and your own mother’s parenting, the authors cover a lot of new ground.
It starts innocently enough. A teacher in school teaches your child something you have long since forgotten. You are too lazy to look up how to do the special shortcut on your phone or the meaning of the newest acronym. Suddenly, your children begin to believe they may just be smarter and wiser than their rapidly aging parents.