SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2017 8:51 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “A Word for Parents”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
3:21
Message of the verses: “21 Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.”
We mentioned in our last SD on this verse that the word
“fathers” can be seen as parents, and so what we have here is the
responsibility of the parents not to exasperate their children. We also have been looking at a list of items
that John MacArthur came up with to show parents what not to do so they will
not exasperate their children and we left off with item number four in our last
SD.
5. Parents can exasperate
their children by failing to show affection to their children. Indecently when we are talking about children
we are talking of all those that live under the roof of parents, from very
young children to children who perhaps are going to college or perhaps working
and still living at home. Parents need
to communicate love to their children so that their children do not become
discouraged or become alienated.
6. There are some parents who exasperate their
children by not providing for their needs.
Children need things like having a place to study, a private place to
study, and they also need the basic necessities of life like food,
clothes. When parents provide these
things they show their children that they respect them.
7. Parents are not to exasperate their children
by a lack of standards. We spoke earlier
of being overprotective to children; well this is the flip side of that. Parents need to have a standard of rules so
that when they are broken that they are consistent in handing out loving
punishment. When parents don’t have
rules for their children to follow it leaves them confused, or worse yet the
children do not think that their parents care for them.
8. Parents can exasperate their children by
criticism. “Haim Ginott wrote ‘A child
learns what he lives. If he lives with
criticism he does not learn responsibility.
He learns to condemn himself and to find fault with others. He learns to doubt his own judgment, to
disparage his own ability, and to distrust the intentions of others. And above all, he learns to live with
continual expectation of impending doom.’”
9. Parents can exasperate their children by
neglect. If you are looking for a
classic example from the word of God you only need to look at Absalom, son of
David. The story of Absalom is a very
sad story with a very tragic ending. It
shows that parents need to be involved in the lives of their children.
10. Parents can exasperate their children by
excessive discipline. The Bible is a
book of balance, and balance in needed when raising children, too much
discipline is not good and not enough is not good either. Parents should never discipline their
children when they are angry, and they should have their children explain to
them what they did wrong, and also tell their children that they are doing this
because they love them, it is tough love.
Our next SD on this subject
will primarily be a quote from John MacArthur’s commentary where he quotes a
poem written by Dorothy Law.
5/23/2017 9:13 PM
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