Character God Blesses in Moms and Dads
Our Character as Parents
We just returned from a week of ministry at Camp Barakel where I have been going ever since I was born, and where I have been returning to minister for the past 10 years or so. I was placed in a room with 138 seven through ten-year olds for several hours each day. After they were through with me Bonnie would drag me out and resuscitate me!
No actually it was one of the greatest times of ministry I have ever had especially because I felt so unable to communicate with them and so as the Lord promised when we are weak – they He can be strong through us. Thanks so much for praying.
On the 2500-mile drive I did learn many things about how exciting it is to be a parent. Many of them follow those anonymous “Laws of Parenting” published many years ago:
Laws of Parenting
The later you stay up, the earlier your child will wake up the next morning.
For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.
Toys multiply to fill any space available.
The longer it takes you to make a meal, the less your child will like it.
Yours is always the only child who doesn’t behave.
If the shoe fits…it’s expensive.
The surest way to get something done is to tell a child not to do it.
The gooier the food, the more likely it is to end up on the carpet.
Backing the car out of the driveway causes your child to have to go to the bathroom.
The more challenging the child, the more rewarding it is to be a parent…sometimes.
Now that was funny but this was not. I had the opportunity to get to know a cross section of young people from Michigan last week. Nearly 300 campers from over 90 different churches, over 20 different denominations but all at the same camp for that week. Probably the one verse that most summarizes what I saw is in Hosea 4:6:
My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you …because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
Those young people are growing up in churches where they are being mostly entertained. The Camp directors told me they couldn’t compete at all with what the churches are doing to attract and hold the kids. But the tragic result is Biblical illiteracy and spiritual starvation. They are excited and bright and spiritually unprepared for knowing what they believe, what God has revealed in His Word, and how to appropriate that truth into their lives.
Has the God of the Universe marked the pathway we need to stay on for raising our children? The good news is that He has. And in the map book called God's Word is a clearly marked trail for Parenting and Grand parenting our Families in Godliness. May I just trace that map through the Bible with you today? You may want to mark some of these verses, or note them on paper so you can use them to see where you are or should be on the Road to Godly Parenting your Families and Homes!
Mile Markers on the Road of Godliness in Parenting