Every November at our church is FAMILY month. It’s honestly my favorite month at church! Even before I was married or had a kid I alwaysss loved hearing about marriage, raising children and anything to do with family.
Last night my Dad preached about husbands, wives, children and parents. One point he gave was: NEVER ALLOW YOUR CHILDREN TO GET DISCOURAGED. I loved that. It was exactly what I needed to hear!
Colossians 3:21- King James Version
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
1. HAVING EXPECTATIONS FOR THEM THAT THEY CAN NEVER MEET.
Maybe it’s in the area of their education. You expect them to get straight A’s and all they can get is B’s. Or maybe you expect them to be good at a sport or an instrument or any area really. He told how he used to tell his basketball team “If you give your very best and we still lose-that’s all I can ask for-is that you gave you’re very best.” Encourage your child to do their very best in EVERYTHING they do and that that is enough for you!
2. COMPARING THEM WITH OTHER CHILDREN.
This is always such a sad thing for me to see, other parents comparing their child to someone else’s child. He said how that as parents we want to compare our children to other children-what if our children start comparing us to other parents? Don’t compare. So many times parents are the reason their children grow up insecure with issues that should have never been there-all because they were compared to other children. Don’t even compare your own children with each other. Every child is different. And honestly I think that is such a beautiful thing that each one of them are different.
3. LIVING YOUR LIFE THROUGH YOUR CHILDREN.
We all have dreams or plans that we have/had for our life…don’t put that pressure on your child to live that out all because you didn’t get to. Our children our NOT our trophy’s. They were given to us to raise them for the LORD not for ourselves.
4. BEING A HYPOCRITE.
Our children know if were one way at home and another way at church. To assume that our kids, because they’re still young, have no clue is such a denial on our part. We can’t try to be holy and righteous at church and live like the devil within the walls of our own home. We obviously aren’t going to be 100% what we are at home when we get to church, but we should strive to be as close to it as we can. Our children are watching and if there is one person we can’t fool it’s our children!!!
5. HAVING AN UNFORGIVING SPIRIT.
If your child messed up or did something in the past and you dealt with it, then leave it there…in the PAST. Men don’t struggle with this as much as women do. We as women sometimes thrive on reliving and bringing up the past. Our children are going to mess up, but if they get it right and you dealt with them, get over it, forgive them and move on. It’s impossible to move forward when you’re always looking in the rear view mirror. Help your kids, forgive them when they betray your trust or disappoint you. When you don’t feel like showing mercy, remember all the times you didn’t deserve it but God still gave it to you.
We as parents play such a huge role in the way our children see themselves, the way they feel and react to life decisions . I needed this last night and maybe someone out there reading this does too. I prayed last night at the altar that one day when Lukes older And he gets discouraged I can help pull him out of it and point him to Jesus.
Remember though we can’t encourage our children not to get discouraged if we as parents are always getting discouraged nor can we point our children to Jesus if we aren’t doing everything we can in our homes to represent HIM.
Here’s just a few random pictures of Luke in his new pool last week💙💙💙
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