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5 Parenting Lessons from our Heavenly Father

My kids are adults now, and I am so proud of the beautiful, kind, responsible people that they have become. I am so thankful to the Lord that He taught my husband and me how to parent at each stage of their life.

There were so many times that we didn’t know what to do, and our awesome Heavenly Father would show us the perfect thing, or bring the right person into our path to give us the knowledge we needed.

I can tell you this with all certainty that you can trust God with your kids. So what are some things that we learned?

5 Great Christian Parenting Lessons

1. God is patient

“Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5). God is always patient with us. He gives us time to learn and grow. He knows that what we are now is not what we are going to become.

You have to be the same. Children can be very frustrating, but you can’t lose patience with them. You need to do things over and over again until they understand and can do it.

2. God speaks good over us

God only speaks good over us, and we need to the same with our kids. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.” What you say to your kids and about your children matters.

When my kids were young, people would say, “Just wait until they are teenagers. They are good now, but they will get worse.” My husband and I never agreed with that statement. We always spoke a successful Christian life over our kids where they never turned away from the Lord.

We declared Scriptures over them like Joshua 24:15b, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” I cannot stress the importance of this lesson. We can curse our kids and make it harder for them to serve the Lord with the words we speak.

Here is something you may not know. The words that come out of your mouth have spiritual power. God can use your blessings to build up, and the enemy can use your negative words to bring curses on your kids. Just don’t do it.

No matter how frustrated, angry or discouraged you get, never say those types of words out loud. Instead, speak what you want to see your kids become.

3. God disciplines us

None of us like the word “discipline” because of how it has been abused over the years. The way that God teaches us is corrective for our good. His discipline never harms us and leads us to life and not death. He lets consequences be the best teacher. He convicts but never condemns.

For whom the LORD loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights. Proverbs 3:12

Your discipline should be the same. You must correct your children; it is the only way they learn how to live successful lives. Discipline must be done out of love and never in anger. If you are angry, get away from your kids until you can deal with what they did without losing it.

Real discipline shows them the right path and gives them the opportunity to choose it. When they take the wrong path, you have two choices: you can stand in their way and stop them going hurting themselves or others, or you can let them experience the fruit of their actions. Either response can be right depending on the situation, but whatever you choose, you must always stay by their side to help them when they see the error of their ways.

4. God teaches us at the level we are at

God is so creative and works with us where we are. He loves us just the way we are, while at the same time, works with us to reach our full potential in Him. As a parent, you have the opportunity to do the same.

You love your child where they are at and encourage and believe for them to become more. You give them opportunities to grow; you lift them up when they fail and every once in a while give them that gentle push they need to go to the next level.

5. God never abandons us

In Hebrews 13:5 God says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We have an awesome God, who never abandons His children no matter what. He is long-suffering towards us, which means that even when we turn away from Him, He never turns away from us. When we come to our senses and return, He is there waiting with open arms.

So many of us have suffered because our parents left us to fend for ourselves and weren’t there when we needed them. The most valuable investment you will make in this lifetime are your kids. At the end of their lives, most people don’t have regrets about money, but they do have regrets about messy relationships they desperately wish they could fix, but know it is too late.

Spend lots and lots of time with your kids at each stage of their growing years, including the teenage years. There will be times that they don’t want to spend time with you; don’t let that happen. Make them. Yes, they can be grouchy about it, but they need to know that no matter how far they try to pull away, that you are not going to give up on them.

Make Your Kids a Priority

It is so easy to let everything else take priority over your children, but I can guarantee you if you ignore them now, they will no longer want to spend time with you when they are older.

Yes, parenting can be hard, challenging and exhausting at times, but the reward is coming. As you continue to be faithful in raising them, you watch them blossom into people who fill your heart with pride. That is worth everything you have gone through as a parent.

Just hold on. It gets better; I promise in 5, 10 or 15 years.

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Comments(2)

  1. Reply
    J.P. says

    Great reading – so true too. There is more though, the Bible translates the verse ” Bring a child up in the way in which he is going and he shall not depart from it.” as “Bring a child up in the way of the Lord and he shall not depart from it. So often people reject all knowledge of life if it is not found word for word in the Bible. Children often are sensitive to killing animals for food, Children want to learn how to grow a garden. Children have all sorts of interests, and parents need to help their children to learn about the right way of doing what they are interested in. In today’s world children are sensitive to the destruction of our planet – the pollution, the loss of habitat for wild animals, the toxins in our water and air – and there is no mention of these issues in the Bible – there are a lot of things children want to find a cure for that were not a problem when the Bible was written – and parents need to help guide the future generation on how to make the changes to our current problems. So many though just expect their children to work on the solutions to the problems that were written about two thousand years ago, and this just is so harmful to the well being of our children.

  2. Reply
    Jhoei says

    This is so true. My husband and I also raise our kids this way and I am so proud of them that they grew up with good values.

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