Learn About Parents and Parenting According to God's Perfect Plan
Like most parents, I parented with a goal – I wanted my kids to be “successful”. More than likely, you did the same. What I failed to consider is that “success” can be measured by two totally different standards.
Raising kids in our culture highlights the problem. We are bombarded by messages from the world’s perspective and it’s hard not to get caught up in worshiping the creation instead of the Creator.
Wouldn’t it be great if our kids would just heed our words of wisdom? Why is it that life’s most valuable lessons are often learned the hard way? Most of us are familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32, but, how often do we look at the parable from a parenting perspective? We can learn from the example of the father who recognizes, like our Heavenly Father, that real transformation sometimes requires our kids to travel the painful path of personal experience.
If there’s one phrase that strikes fear in the heart of a lot of parents, it’s this: summer break.
As a kid, there was nothing better than the three months of freedom between May and September. But fast-forward to life as a parent, and June, July, and August can often mean three long months filled with hot days, bored kids, and—if you’re the parent of college students—missed curfew!
Parenting teenagers can be challenging! In fact, most parents say these years are the most difficult.
It’s not hard to see why! These years take our kids through an emotional, hormonal, and biological overhaul. In addition, teens begin to see their parents’ flaws and realize they’re not perfect. They want to try handling things on their own and see if what their parents taught them is really true. In the process, they start to break away and test the boundaries.
I have recently been thinking about the questions, “What do I want my kids to know about money?” and “How can I best teach that lesson?” This is a sensitive issue, I know. It is rarely raised in Parenting by Design classes and almost never raised in traditional church settings. There are few topics that elicit as much discomfort as a talk about money. I hope you will indulge me as I mull over these questions.
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