Someone once said to me, “Don’t make parenting so difficult. Just relax and have fun! You don’t have to know everything in order to be a good parent.” Being a parent starts out as a dream. Doting, expectant fathers and their pregnant wives dream about the sweet infant all cozy in pink or blue blankets …
Author Archives: andrew
34710 Discipline with Love and Conviction
God’s Word instructs us to love one another (1 Peter 1:22). Nearly every parent wants to give his or her children tender, loving, and sacrificial care that flows out of a heart of love; but even the most dedicated mother or father cannot do this unless God is the source of that love. This is …
Continue reading “34710 Discipline with Love and Conviction”
34712 Setting Limits
In all athletic team competitions, the home and visiting teams and their corresponding fans all go by the same rules and boundaries. The rules are published in a book and knowledge of the rules is essential to understanding and playing the game. Making sure the players stay within the limits established by the rulebook is …
34714 The Truth about Consequences
We do our children a great favor if we help them understand there are consequences for their actions … good and bad. Distraught parents often come to me because their children are suffering the consequences of not being adequately supervised. Of course, teenagers do not want to be supervised, but oftentimes dire consequences will be …
34716 Helping Kids Live Within Limits
I want to remind you that raising children is a 20-year process. Twenty years. So those of you with preschool children need to remember that you have a ways to go! So relax, take it easy; there isn’t any one day that makes a whole lot of difference, not in the perspective of 20 years. In …
34718 Expect Respect from Your Children
The foundation upon which you’re going to build an effective family life is this: You expect your children to honor you. Now how does that happen? That happens when you and your partner sit down and develop guidelines, limits, and rules that both of you are prepared to carry out, and in your considered judgment, …
34720 Enforcing Boundaries with Children
How seriously do you take your responsibilities as a parent? Do you believe in setting limits and boundaries? Many people these days are saying, “Don’t pressure your child. If they don’t want to do it, don’t force them.” The Bible has this to say about that kind of thinking: “The child left to himself bringeth …
34722 Setting Reasonable Limits for Kids
“But Mommy, I don’t want to.” Or maybe, it’s “No, Daddy, I won’t.” Sound familiar? These responses are the “cries of resistance” to major principles parents need to set down concerning their families. These principles are called limits. When you think about living and working together as a family, setting limits is vital. Children need …
34724 Cooperative Parenthood
If your marriage partner is more intimately involved in your life than anyone else, your children run a close second. You will either reveal or conceal your spirit around your children. With your children in mind, consider this Bible verse: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; …
34726 Four Building Blocks for Raising Children
What do you think is involved in being an effective parent? The Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6 to “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (KJV). Now that’s a tall order, and a great responsibility, and there are some positive …
Continue reading “34726 Four Building Blocks for Raising Children”