Never in the history of the world has the family been so under attack as it is today! There is so much peer pressure for the children as well as the adults. The effort of sinful and liberal influence has created a monumental barrier for Christians to effectively parent.
In Judges 13:2-12 a man named Manoah asked God how he could effectively, properly raise his new baby. Not every child is so fortunate to have a father who wants to know how to properly parent. In fact, few parents decide on a plan to which they can agree for raising their children before they are born. Proper Christian parenting is a bigger issue that we are likely to admit. Even in the Bible some of the best-known men were poor parents.
I met a woman who said she would rather have her daughter obey her than have a close relationship with her. I was appalled. As long as that mother maintained such an attitude, there would be a great detriment to the girls future as well as the relationship. We may need to restructure our own ideas of home and family as we attempt to answer this man’s question that he asked God. Healthy Christian homes do not just happen by accident.
Let us make some observations. Parents get back from their children what they put into the children. Angry parents create angry children. When babies are born, they are naturally happy and actually have to be taught how to be sad or angry or disobedient. In this day and time, the world delights in polluting young minds.
Some errors of parenting seem to be universal. An unaware parent can easily project their own agenda onto their own child. Unfortunately, I have personally witnessed the number of times in which a child is treated in such an unhealthy way that the adult would never think to treat another adult. That adult may commit abuse, rudeness, anger, rejection, and sending a message of yes/but to the child.
So, what is the biblical way? The parents must begin with a consecrated effort to be unique and different as a family before God. It is the adult responsibility assigned by God to create a safe, approving, well-being, and loving environment in the home. In the counseling that I’ve done, I often have asked people how they received acceptance, approval, and encouragement as they were growing up. There were times that I received blank looks from the person I was counseling because they had no idea what I was asking. Yet those things are vitally important to the child. Family traditions and practices are significant that helps pass the faith along to the next generation. To properly discipline a child in a Christian way must be done in such a manner that does not provoke anger. ( Ephesians 6:4)
What parenting plan do you have the answers the following how to questions?
Help your children to be healthy/safe physically and emotionally.
Give your child the opportunity to make decisions even at a young age such as do they want strawberry or chocolate ice cream. This will give them future confidence and ability.
Demonstrate how the child can become a responsible person no matter what age.
Encourage your child to set goals such as what time to call grandparents on the phone.
Teach the child how to problem solve.
Encourage the child healthy way to relate to others, especially the opposite sex.
Assure that the child knows how to have self-respect so that they can also know how to respect others.
Designate ways for the child to cope with disappointments and failures because we all have them.
It’s very important for the child to know how to judge between right and wrong. This includes a standard that creates a quality of character.
Being a Christian parent is very challenging. Children do not come with a handbook when they arrive into this world. Parents are new with their job in the same way the child is new at being a child. Families must be cohesive under the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will all fail from time to time. The importance is it we can keep trying over and over graciously.
Christian Writer 