I am beginning my second year of working in child care, and as I go to work Monday through Friday, my heart aches more with each day.
The children bicker and fight over toys that their friends have, they hit one another for no reason whatsoever, they tattle on each other just to get their friends in trouble, and they throw themselves back with blood curdling screams and fits when they don't get their way.
None of these children are happy all day for even one day out of the week.
The parents are afraid of hurting their children's feelings, so they don't correct them.They are afraid of saying no to them, so they give them everything they ask for. They are afraid of admitting that their children make mistakes, so they make excuses for them.
Children will not always need someone to help dress them in the morning, to wipe their noses, or to cut their meat up into small pieces. Children will grow older, and they will no longer need assistance in the bathroom, and one day will not need to hold hands with you as you cross the street.
However, the bad behaviors and the habits that they exhibit, the discontentment, the anger, and the spoiled attitudes, will carry on throughout their lives, and some children will never grow out of it even once they mature into adults, because it is all that they know.
If you freely give your children everything they want, they will never learn to be thankful, or content, and they will never understand the value of the dollar. They will not be wise or frugal, and will not learn that material things do not bring true happiness.
If you allow your child to be the boss and walk on you, the result will be an adult that will be demanding and controlling, and prone to anger.
Your children will have a difficult time finding the Lord in the future if they were raised with seeds of anger, discontentment, impatience, disrespect, you name it.
Every decision that you make for your children as a Christian parent, should help them and encourage them to turn to the Lord in the future, and give them tools to be a functioning, respectful, and wise adult.
We can not think of our children as children. We have to think of them as future adults.
We can not underestimate the intelligence of our children, or their capabilities.
We have to allow our children to let go of certain childish behaviors and habits when they are ready, and equip them to be able to grow and mature. We also have to correct behaviors that are toxic.
Behaviors such as tantrums and fits, being overly emotional and dramatic, or slapping, biting, pulling hair, etc.
The fact is that all children occasionally challenge authority, or see the lines of good and evil as blurred. But it is your job to fill in those lines and correct your children, just as God corrects us when we go astray from His will.
Do you want your children to grow to be upright, respectful, and bold men and women of God?
Or would you rather that they grow to be lost sheep, angry, controlling, and or just unhappy?
STOP.
Stop thinking of your children as children. Do not think of their present, think of their future. Think of who your children will be as adults.
Children are a blessing to us, a heritage of the Lord. It is an honor, a joy, and a gift to be a parent. Do not let it be a stressful experience.
Pray for God to help you with the things you need work on. Pray for your children, that they will one day see the light of the Lord, and that as adults they will find fulfillment and joy in the Lord.
Peace be with you and your family, in the name of Jesus Christ.
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." -- 1 Corinthians 13:11
"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." -- Psalm 127:3-4
"He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." -- Proverbs 13:24
"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." -- Ephesians 6:4
"Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." -- Matthew 19:13-14
But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." -- Matthew 19:13-14
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." -- Proverbs 22:6
"A bishop must be....
One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity:
(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)" -- 1 Timothy 3:2-5
"Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest: yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul." -- Proverbs 29:17
