Week 43 – Day 4
ENCOURAGING HOMES
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Colossians 3:18-21
Child abuse angers me (Susie), whether it be physical, mental or emotional. However, there is a subtle type of abuse that doesn’t make the headlines, that of discouraging a child to the point that his spirit is broken. I abhor the “cut-down jokes” that are rampant in our society. James was right on target when he spoke of the difficulty of taming the tongue (James chapter 3). If I don’t seek the Lord’s help to reign in my tongue, I can find myself destroying others with this so-called humor. I find particularly loathsome the habit of some parents in teasing their children in this manner. We are admonished to encourage one another and build each other up (Ephesians chapter 4). Teasing and cut-down jokes tear down, especially when applied to children.
The other form this abuse takes is being unreasonably hard on a child. Yes, we need to have high expectations of our children; but we are also to demonstrate God’s grace to them in real and tangible ways. Our children need to know that we love them even when they fail, perhaps especially when they fail. When teaching, I worked with many “sweat-hogs” to borrow a phrase from television. I found what most of them needed was someone to tell them, “You CAN do it! I believe in you! God has gifted you in many ways, and He will help you to succeed.”
I was blessed to have loving earthly parents who listened to me and helped me up when I would fall. My earthly father helped me financially with no condemnation over my inability to manage on my own. He knew I had chosen a path of ministry that paid little in money but much in satisfaction, and he encouraged me to seek the Lord’s path for my life.
Father, you have blessed us with “adopted” children and Godchildren. Help us to continue to encourage them and never to break their spirits. Help us to be builders in our grandchildren’s lives as well. Draw them to You at an early age that they may know the security of Your love throughout life on earth.