8 comments

Erin Davis

Eek! Whose Children Are These?

Posted on 12.06.12 by Erin Davis | Twitter: @ErinGraffiti
Topics: With Your Kids

That video is good for a giggle. (I told you I had a thing for furry creatures!) I think this clip tickles me so because I can relate to that panda momma. Almost every day, several times a day I react like she did . . . Eek! Whose children are these?

Sometimes it happens first thing in the morning when my boys pry my eyelids open. For a split second I wonder who will make them breakfast and get them to calm down a bit so I can have some coffee in peace. And then I realize, “Oh yeah, I’m on breakfast duty.” Then I take a swig from the cold coffee on the countertop that I never drank yesterday.

Then there are the higher stakes “eek” moments. Sometimes I wonder, "Why are these children acting this way? Who is supposed to be teaching them how to behave? I wish someone would show them how to live more like Jesus." Then I remember, "Oh yes . . . that’s my job." It’s a reality that still surprises, overwhelms, and worries me almost daily. Honestly, I would love to pawn their spiritual development off on their Sunday school teachers, their grandparents, or Elmo if he’d come to Jesus. But then I read stats like these:

• Parents have between 3,000–4,000 hours a year to disciple their child. Church staff members have less than 100 hours.

• In study after study, teenagers list their parents as their number one influence when it comes to religious faith and practice. So much so that researchers have called the cultural assumption that a teen’s peer group is more influential then his/her parents as “badly misguided.” (Warning: your heavy influence starts way before the teen years.)

• Swiss researchers recently discovered that a dad who faithfully attends church (even if mom doesn’t) will raise kids who are forty-four percent more likely to keep going to church as adults. If mom attends regularly but dad doesn’t attend, only two percent of the kids will attend as adults. (Just a shout-out to you dads out there!)

In other words, I can’t outsource my kids’ spiritual development. The buck stops with me (and my man).

Proverbs 22:6 
says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Deuteronomy 11:18–19 says, “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

The Bible says it is my job to train, and it is my job to teach my children God’s words. What’s more, I am to do that teaching all day, every day. I’m to talk to them about God when we are walking, when we are driving, and when I am dishing out Cheerios before the sunrise.

It’s a complex job with really high stakes. Perhaps that’s why I am so prone to forget what God has called me to. But when those “eek” moments come, I have a choice. I can stick my head in the sand and hope that someone else will pick up the mantle of showing them God’s Truth. Or I do what God asks me to, and take the helm in training my children to know and serve Christ.

What surprises you most about what God requires of you as a mom? What do you do to take the reins in developing your kids spiritually?

Comments

  1. What happens when you've made efforts to rear your child up in the fear of God and they live totally opposite of what you have tries to instill within them and seemingly reject God's way?
    posted by Pamela Arvie
    on Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 8:26 am
  2. As a mother of two daughters, ages 12 and 14, I have been concerned about whether God is and will be their first love. I have chosen to home school them off and on so that we have time to read the Bible and discuss it and pray together. Sometimes I get a glimpse of God's working in their hearts. Other times I have concerns.
    But I am encouraged and surprised to learn that the parents are a bigger influence than peers. And to learn what a large role the father plays.
    Thank you for sharing this.
    One thing I'd like to add. Although our actions and attitudes towards God is important, prayer is the most important. Praying daily (and sometimes minute by minute) for guidance and for my daughters' hearts to be turned towards God is the most important thing I can do.
    posted by Sherry
    on Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 10:48 am
  3. I praise God when I have good parenting days and bad, because my boy's salvation is of God and NOT by my parenting. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand." John 10:27-29. Be encouraged! THE Father has it all in hand.
    posted by keli
    on Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 11:56 am
  4. Pamela - your questions is one that most parents have...or will have some day. Been down that road several times and am still on it. However, as Keli says - our children's salvation is from God and not from our parenting. I thank Jesus everyday that is was and is not up to me to 'save' my kids and that we have a perfect, holy and purly righteous Redeemer who gives us the grace and courage to parent...in Him. Be an insturment in your children's live - even if they are grown; pray that God might soften their hearts so they turn toward Him; trust in His promises for salvation. Because He is Sovereign God we can be diligent in training and disciplining our children but what a relief to know that He has everything under His control and that His plans for us and our children are perfect. Great book that I've just read (I'm a parent of five and grandparent of six) is Elyse Fitzpatrick's, "Give Them Grace" - I wept through most of it, repented of my sin in parenting and now move toward my kids and grandkids with joy and peace. Blessings to you as you leave your children in His hands.
    posted by Wilma
    on Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 4:11 pm
  5. Amen to all the comments! I've paused to pray for each of you and your children. Thank you for your posts!
    posted by Sarah, with the TW Team
    on Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 6:14 pm
  6. Thanks for the encoouraging words. I know that what you are saying is true. However, it is still difficult watching your children making poor choices. I know that God indeed has my child in His hand. I will definitely ask God to soften her heart as zi continue to pray for her. Wilma, thanks for the book title. Blessings to Ll and this blog to be able to share with other women who love The Lord.
    posted by Pamela
    on Friday, December 7, 2012 at 12:34 am
  7. Thank you, Erin, for these encouraging words. Your story ia partly similar to my life today! It is really hard and irritating to be awake at 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 am by a whining girl who doesn't want to sleep alone in her crib anymore, and to remember that this is a special opportunity for me to serve, train, and love my child. And though I am commited to train my girl, I've got encouraged, but also challenged, to see my influence as a parent to be No1 for the kids, not their peers'. That's new for me, and gives me the hope that God can use me and my husband to work in my daughter's life and change her heart and mind (of course, we must be faithful in showing her the Lord and in training her in His ways!). And I deeply agree that we as parents have the responsibility to train our kids, not the Sunday school teachers - after all, they spend only 1 hour per week with them!
    Dear moms, thanks for sharing your experiences, they give me hope and faith that I must do whatever God wants me to do in order to help my girl "see" the Lord, and to leave the results of her salvation to Him!
    posted by Desi
    on Friday, December 7, 2012 at 7:29 am
  8. Wilma - thanks for the book title and the encouragement as we are currently raising our niece and she is far from saved. My kids are very young and I don't know the future but I want to be ready if I must face this again.
    posted by Rose
    on Saturday, December 29, 2012 at 10:49 am

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