First: "You're Grounded!", what does it mean? Well, my mom said it a lot and used it as a tool to help show me consequences for actions. It can refer to your faith in God, or your consistency as a parent in raising your child. All these can be a good thing, in the end. My hope is for this to be a tool or help, among many others, to parents. I write this as much for me and my family as anything (sorry for being selfish). I hope you enjoy the writings of not just a children's pastor, but first and foremost, a Dad. Now, for part 1 of 3 of who, what, and when...
Who is supposed to teach my child how to relate to God? This question gets muddied in the craziness of life. As life closes in around us we seek to outsource as much as possible. We outsource meals to McDonalds, teaching to schools, laundry to the cleaners, investments to the financial planners, bill pay to the computer, cleaning to the cleaning person we hired. We could go on for days with the list of what we outsource to “make more time”. The issue is, we as parents, have outsourced the spiritual growth of our children to the church and the church was never designed for this. Fact is, we have outsourced our own relationship with God to the church. By definition a relationship is, connecting or binding participants. Who has God called to connect and bind our children to Him, us, the parents? Look at the words God chose to instruct us on the who from Deuteronomy 6: 1-9. Verse 2: your children, verse, 7: your children, at home, when you lie down, and get up (you lie down and get up at home), verse 9: doorframes of your houses and on your gates. God is very clear, parents are called to step up and be the ones to teach and train our children how to relate to Him. Why do our kids act like they shouldn't, why do we have trouble with behavior, why do our kids not relate exceptionally well to us or God? The who is not who it's supposed to be. Please understand, God said we as parent gotta do this. We have to own it and not outsource the awesome gift God gave us. A parent is a person who brings up and cares for another. Bring up and care for your child the way God designed.
Check out the poll question at the bottom of the page. I'll change it periodically, see ya
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