Protecting Your Child from Mistakes

You can’t always protect your children from mistakes. Sometimes you’ve got to let them go, trusting God to uphold and undertake for them. It’s not easy. I know. Letting go is something I struggle with, but I’ve had to learn to do it. You have to trust that you have brought them up so that ultimately they will make the right choices and not make decisions that will endanger their lives. It might mean making choices we won’t agree with, like dating a non Christian or them becoming involved in activities we would rather they did not or that we … Continue reading →

12 Suggestions For Raising Godly Children

So you want to bring your children up in God’s ways so that they will follow Him. Here are some suggestions for ways you can help achieve this. 1. Pray for and with your child. Let them see the reality of your faith as you turn to the Lord in prayer when problems or hard times come, or just for God’s help with decisions each day. Encourage them by your example to praise God for the blessings of life every day. 2. As you pray for your children, pray for those they will grow up to marry. From the time … Continue reading →

What Are You Teaching Your Children Through TV?

How much influence does your TV have on your children? We can teach them certain attitudes and values at home but chances are that many of the attitudes and values they see on TV shows will be counterproductive to what we are trying to teach them. In some homes the TV seems goes on first thing in the morning and says on till the last person is in bed at night. The TV is on during meals and when visitors come. It appears many people forget TVs come with an off switch. They sit and complain about the shows on … Continue reading →

What Are You Teaching Your Children About Anger?

Recently we’ve been looking at anger and how to deal with it. What are you teaching your child about anger? Look at Proverbs 15:1 and we find that ‘a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.’ We need to not only watch our words but also the manner in which we deliver them, so we do not incite anger in others. This is true in parenting, as it is in a marriage relationship and in our churches. Years ago I went with my daughter’s school to Canberra and to Parliament House. As we sat in … Continue reading →

Parenting God’s Way – part 2

“Modern mums equate the word wellbeing with ‘happiness’, as if happiness is all that counts or is at least more valuable than discipline, responsibility or overall health,” says social trends researcher Sure, we all want our kids to be happy, but to expect happiness all the time in life is unrealistic. Loss, hard times, sorrow, disappointments come. They are part of life. How are our children going to cope with them if they have not been trained properly, during their growing years? My children both tell people they had happy childhoods. We spent lots of happy hours, reading to them, … Continue reading →

Characteristics and Personality Traits in Children.

How much is genetic? How much the way God made them? And how much influence does a parent have on a child’s personality and character traits? These questions have always fascinated me. I started thinking about them again today after reading Lyn’s blog about, what the way a child colors says about them and their schoolwork. When our son was young we had his room filled with myriad soft toys in bright colors and orange pictures or bright cartoon characters on the lemon walls. I was determined not to go for the traditional blue. A colored mobile hung above the … Continue reading →

Children Obey Your Parents

As someone who regularly deals with children and their families, I often hear the same complaints: “They don’t listen when I tell them to do something.” “I can’t get them to obey.” “I’m doing everything right–disciplining for disobedience, praising for the good–and still I see no progress.” My disclaimer here is that if you are having trouble with your child–these couple of blogs won’t fix your problems. But I recently went to a parenting seminar and I want to pass along some things that were shared that struck home with me. Ephesians 6:1 “Children obey your parents. . .” One … Continue reading →

What Are You Teaching Your Children?

Children can be cruel, especially to anyone who is different. I’m sure we all remember children from school that were bullied and picked on because they were different. Maybe some of us were even one of these children, subjected go torment and ridicule by others. Or maybe we were one of those who joined with the crowd in teasing the child who was perceived as different. As parents we need to teach our children what is acceptable behavior and what is not, e.g. many parents have to deal with a child who bites other children or hits them or kicks … Continue reading →

Who is Responsible?

Children’s ministry – is it the responsibility of the church or the parents? When we consult God’s word on the matter, parents are told to ‘train up a child in the way he should go’ Proverbs 22:6. The Israelites were told to teach their children about God and His laws. ‘You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up,’ Deuteronomy 11:19 NASB. Surely this command applies equally to God’s people today. In other words every part … Continue reading →

Reaching Our Youth: Middle Schoolers

Passing through the doors to where the middle school youth meet during church I saw girls laughing with one another, boys playing the interactive Nintendo Wii; to the right was like a little café where Italian sodas and perhaps even coffee could be purchased to raise money for the youth. The youth had what seemed to be an elaborate sound system and crew, 3 huge screens for videos or viewing the words to worship music. There was no shortage of places to make myself comfortable: barstool seats at a café style table, a gigantic beanbag to lounge on or, what … Continue reading →