Your Home A Strengthening Place: Daily Time With The Kids Series

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Your Home A Strengthening Space

Daily Affirming Time for You & Your Mate & Your Kids

Ephesians 6:4

Here is a SIGN that was posted on a BATHROOM DOOR

Attention Everyone: The Bathroom Door is Closed!

Please do not stand there and talk, whine or ask questions.

Wait until I get out.

Yes, it is locked. I want it that way.

No, it is not broken; I am not trapped.

I know I have left it unlocked, and even open at times, since you were born, because I was afraid some horrible tragedy might occur while I was in there.

But it’s been ten years, and I want some privacy.

Do not ask me how long I will be.

I will come out when I am done.

Do not bring the phone to the bathroom door.

Do not go running back to the phone yelling, “She’s in the bathroom!”

Do not begin to fight as soon as I go in.

Do not stick your little fingers under the door and wiggle them.

This was funny only when you were two.

Do not slide pennies, Legos, or notes under the door,

Even when you were two, this got a little tiresome.

If you have followed me down the hall, talking,

And are still talking as you face this closed door,

Please turn around, walk away and wait for me in another room.

I will be glad to listen to you when I am done.

Oh…and yes, I still love you. –Mom.

Is this one method to teach our children boundaries I suppose. The nefarious written note on the bathroom door! There are worse ways of getting a message across to our children. With the national average in 2001 of somewhere between 3-4 children dying every DAY from abuse, a written note on the bathroom door gets a gold star!

One out of three children in the United States are growing up without a father present in the home. Last year in a number of major U.S. cities more children were born out of wedlock than within. The American home is in crisis. Very serious diseases are affecting and infecting our home life. Things like homosexual marriages, divorce, spousal assaults, hate crimes between parents with children and children with parents.

These indicators, as alarming as they may be, there is one very subtle symptom within the home that may be even more impacting than all of these combined. Like walking-pneumonia, a growing number of families are infected with what some family counselors are calling DWI, “driving while intoxicated.” On the outside, these traditional American moms, dads and kids seem they have it all together; but on the inside things are not so good. Parents are driven to almost anything in order to grab the “American Dream” model to the kids that their priorities should be focused on winning at any cost. These families are rotting from within because they are self-consumed. While they sacrifice everything in order to succeed outside of the family, they are losing their identity of what family really is. They are driving at a break-neck speed, out-of-control and in serious danger of crashing.

The following story of two paddleboats illustrates these family’s well: Two paddleboats left port about the same time down the Mississippi River. As they traveled side by side, the sailors began to taunt one another; challenging words were exchanged until finally a race began. After a time, one boat began falling behind; its fuel supply nearly expended. Although there had been plenty of coal for the trip, there had not been enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship’s cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. They ended up winning the race, but burnt their cargo.

Parents can get caught up in society’s example of putting their “program” of succeeding at any cost ahead of the precious “cargo” that God has entrusted to the family. These are the families that seem okay on the outside, but on the inside they are wasting away. The harder they strive to get to where they think they deserve to be, the more and more of their precious cargo of love, forgiveness, understanding and spiritual growth they need to burn away to get there. They may “win” the race; but is getting there without their “cargo” really worth it?

A study once disclosed that if both Mom and Dad attend church regularly, 72% of their children remain faithful. If only Dad, 55% remain faithful. If only Mom, 15%. If neither attended regularly, only 6% remain faithful. The statistics speak for themselves don’t they—a parent’s example is more important than all the efforts of the church and Sunday school.