Daily Devotionals by Ardith Keef

       I see mostly passive parents.
     Passive parents don't do much until they are angry or until someone is about to get hurt. Passive parents are either hypersensitive to any correction of their children or they do not know it is happening.
     Passive parents let things go by because they are tired and because they simply do not want to put up with the objections. Or the crying.
     Our children today are often running the show and that ought not to be. There should be a Biblical order in the home. For example:
     There is no reason a child should be objecting to going somewhere. If he is doing that, he has done it since he could speak, and the parent has tried to explain to him why he should go.
     He does not need to understand, he should not have a choice (most of the time) and the last thing the parent should be doing, is talking him into going.
     He does not have a choice. He does not make the decisions, and it is destructive to approach the matter with persuasion.
     As the child gets older, there is nothing wrong with a respectful request for an alternative, but if the answer is no, he does not have a choice. and talking him into it accurately leads him to believe he can rule.
     As he enters the teenage years, a parent should consciously consider situations where the child can choose to join or abstain from certain things that might include him, but that is the organic result of insight that has come from a parent's prayer.
     If your three or four year old is holding things up because you "can't get him to. . ." it means you are a passive parent.
     He is little and you are big. You have God's authority to pick him up calmly and do the thing you think ought to be done. It will keep you calm and it will prevent the frustration satan intends in your home.
     With children, the mouth is the most important thing. It expresses rebellion and is the point of testing.
     There is no perfect parent except our Father!
     Remember, He who made the little one, said (in James) we could freely ask for wisdom.
     Consistency in the little matters during early years will minimize hard lessons later, both for the parent and for the child.
     
     
     

     
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