Good Morning,
There must be some rain in our future. My old body is predicting a weather change. I never used to believe that you could forecast the weather by your body aches, but I believe it now. I just re-filled my mug with Door County S'mores Coffee and now it is time to write.
1 Peter 3:12 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers.
Raising kids is no easy task at all. One thing we can do as parents is to be loyal to prayer and be stubborn intercessors for our children.
There are two types of fear in parenting that can grip Mom and Dad. Yes this world is tough and there is a whole lot of nasty out there. When we pray for our kids, we must also pray for ourselves that we always trust in God's leadership and then put it into practice.
One type of fear if it overcomes us, turns parents into paranoid prison guards who monitor every minute, perform background checks on every friend and become stifling. This communicates distrust. A family that runs like this leaves no breathing room for a child to grow and suffocates a child.
Number two type of fear can also create permissive parents. High on hugs and low on discipline . They can't see the fact that discipline is an expression of love.
Parental fears, are common to us all. The Bible doesn't say much on parenting in specific. ( Soccer or football?, Breast feed or not to breast feed? School away or home school?) Yet Jesus always has a lot to say about prayer. We should be praying parents who consult the Lord with our questions, our need to protect, and nurture our children. Prayer is a cooling dish for the heat of fear. When a parent prays God responds. Our newly planted seedlings need a green house to grow. My first attempt at a small one did not sustain some high wind gusts. But when we pray over our children, with our children, and with others, we are raising them in the green house of prayer.
Last thought on this. I believe this is a good example. Teens will eventually date. Young Goober will show up to take Sally out on a date. You have all kinds of fears running the course of your veins. Did you pray for this day 10 years ago when Sally dressed up with a towel on her head pretending it was her wedding day? Did you pray for this day when Goober said "I hate girls. They smell." You knew eventually Sally would start looking good to him. Now the day is here and prom arrived and you are worried about anything and everything. Of course you are praying now. But when Goober shows up and all the pictures are taken, do you stop and pray with the kids before they leave? What a statement that makes! Let them take Jesus on the date with them. The prison guard parents already have fifteen ways to watch these kids all night and are worried that they forgot to put the GPS tracker on Goobers car. They have gone from guards to spies. The permissive parents now wonder if the dress Sally is wearing should have been purchased with the other half of it. They wonder why Goober is driving a motor home instead of a car? Pray early, pray often and pray without ceasing for your kids and yourselves, Be the parents God teaches you to be.
Food for thought.
Marty
No comments:
Post a Comment