God's Plan For Parenting

God’s Plan for Parenting

Colossians 3:20-21

Primary Purpose: To discuss God’s plan for parenting.

Here Paul moves from discussing marriage to specifically discussing

the parent-child relationship. It’s nice to know that God has a plan for

parenting. It may be that parenting is one of the most difficult jobs on earth.

We seem to have more and more parents who don’t take their role in their

children’s lives seriously. A man named Warren Wiersbe once said that

“children don’t create problems they reveal them.” This seems true for the

most part. They reveal where their parents have failed to teach them right

and wrong and whether or not they have been instructed in the Lord.

A study once disclosed tht if both Mom and Dad attend church

regularly, 72% of their children remain faithful to church attendance. If only

Dad, 55% remain faithful. If only Mom, 15%. If neither attend regularly,

only 6% remain faithful. This statistic speaks for itself. It shows the impact

of the parents on the children and their faith.

Paul gives the children and then the parents some clear instructions about

God’s will for them. Read Scripture and Ephesians 6:1-4

1. Children should obey their parents v.20 One of the qualities that Paul lists

of children in the last days is that they will be disobedient to parents. 2 Tim

3:2. It seems that we are in these last days. Parent don’t teach their children

to respect authority anymore. I see this reflected in many of the youth who

come to our church on Wednesdays. They didn’t respect Matt when he was

trying to teach them, they didn’t respect me when I was trying to teach and

many of them don’t show any respect to Marva either. Their parents haven’t

spent the time teaching their children when they are young.

It is natural for children to test limits. They want to find out where the

boundaries are. You don’t need to teach a child to say “no” or “mine” they

pick it up without difficulty. Part of the role of parents is teaching their

children to share, to give, to forgive, to love others. We are by nature selfish,

part of our role as parents is to teach otherness to our children.

We should show our children and grandchildren how good it can feel

to help others. That’s what I really appreciate now about work camp that I

attended for 3 years at church. We went to help others who were elderly or

handicapped and couldn’t do for themselves. You might fix a roof or paint a

house or put a railing on a set of stairs or clean up some property. I

remember one lady in Bryan, Texas. We helped clean the lot next to her

home. It looked like the jungles in Africa. We took in swing blades and then

mowers and cut down the talls grass. It was hard work. But, it didn’t feel

like it was as hard as it was because I knew I was helping someone who

couldn’t do this for themselves and couldn’t afford to pay to have it done.

That made a big impression on me as a 17 year old.

A father once said to his son, “You’d better get ready. The bus will be

here in a minute to pick you up and take you to Sunday School.” The boy

asked, “Did you go to Sunday School when you were a boy?” The father

replied, “Yes, I did.”

The boy said as he was getting dressed, “It probably won’t do me any

good either.”

That little boy was saying something about how much the church had

made a impact on his father’s life. That’s the sermon that the kids remember.

They want to find out what is important from you as a parent. Part of

the way I show love to a child is by saying “no”, by consistently setting

limits, by teaching them what is important in life. In one recent survey,

fathers were said to spend only 37 seconds a day in conversation with their

boys. How do you teach anyone anything important in 37 seconds a day?

One of the ways I demonstrate love to my children is spending time with them

and consistently setting limits.

It can be said that,

If a child lives with criticism,

He learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,

He learns to fight.

If a child lives with ridicule,

He learns to be shy.

If a child lives with shame,

He learns to feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,

He learns to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement,

He learns confidence

If a child lives with praise,

He learns to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness,

He learns justice.

If a child lives with security, He learns to have faith.