Parenting, February 25 Daily Reflection

My children doing homework

Our children are all so different from one another. Children who are sisters and brothers born from the same parents, raised in the same house, with the same rules at the same school, with the same teachers, the same values and the same upbringing.  They are truly unique. Some of them love to read and hate math. Some love math and hate to read. I have one that loves both! Some of them struggle with homework but get excellent grades on tests without studying. Others study intensely and do poorly on the tests.

As parents we have to recognize our children as complete individuals. Our youngest child will not react the way our oldest child did when he was that age. Just when you think as a parent you have a grasp on your children’s behavior they up and change. Parenting is complex and ever changing from the very physical and hands on labor of an infant/toddler stage to the heart breaking realities of pre-teens hormones and mood swings. Our children change and grow daily. It is our job as parents to teach them to be good people, to use their unique qualities to help others and mature into a responsible adult. The parent’s job is a life long journey one filled with frustration but intense love, filled with confusion and amazing clarity when a situation miraculously works out for the best.  There are the trying valleys and mountain top experiences. We need to just keep on keeping on!

Acknowledge the differences, the uniqueness of that littler person that you would lay down your life for and fill their world with love. If we love as God loves us we will raise them right. In all things do it with love. We know we must obey God and follow His commands; we lay down the law with our rules. We also know that when we have done wrong and we go to Him for forgiveness and it will be granted, never hold a grudge against your child always forgive so that they might grow. We know that there will be consequences for our actions and as parents we enforce consequences not for the sake of our authority but so that our children can experience the true consequences of the world they must face someday without our guidance or shelter. If we pattern our parenting from God’s parenting we can do no better in this lifetime.  Love them as God loves you.

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