Our children and Truth
God gives us the incredible blessing of putting people in our life to love and to love on us but He will also place people in our lives to teach us to love when they seem almost impossible to love. He will also place people in our lives that will give us the opportunity to grow our faith as well as practice patience.
Lately we have been dealing with neighborhood bullies and my two older boys have had to endure the pain, physical as well as verbal, associated with the typical bully. Eventually the time comes, where as a parent, you must intervene in order to protect your children from those who are trying to harm them. As a mom, loving children who are bullying your own children is very difficult and so through this trying time, God is really testing my faith in this area as well as my patience. I have come to recognize the part that we as parents play in the actions of our children. I truly believe that for the most part, children are innocent and end up being a product of their environment. I have seen in my own children, how my actions and words effect how they behave and respond. I have amazing kids. My kids love the Lord, they are compassionate and tenderhearted and have a desire to love on people and serve but they are also kids. This means that they can be selfish and obnoxious, disrespectful and rude but because I recognize these things, I in turn am given the opportunity to discipline and teach them truth. We should be careful not to walk around with blinders on to the world and in turn, we should be careful not to walk around with blinders on when it comes to our children. Either we can choose to see them and their actions for what they truly are or we can simply choose to dismiss it as "child-like" behavior. I know many who will dismiss the deliberate disobedience of their children as being child-like and because of this; the children are the ones to suffer. God has given us the responsibility as parents to train up our children in the way in which they should go. This means that we are to teach them truth, love, obedience and respect for others. God has placed the responsibility upon us that we should want nothing more than to show our children the love of Christ and what He has to offer to them.
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4
But if you have this problem with "neighborhood bullies" then why not speak to the parents directly instead of blogging about it? As children of God, who are constantly in sin, we must go to our brothers and sisters who we have sinned against or who have sinned against us and reconcile. Matthew 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you." Just an idea.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your comment on the blog.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have tried to get together to discuss this with the other parents and never heard anything. My hubsand did in fact speak with one of the boys parents over the weekend and it went well.
My blog is a place for me to share my heart and how God is working in my life so that others who may be experiencing the same kinds of things can know that they are not alone and that God is always there. God bless!!