Get Smart: Parenting

Isn't is great to receive wisdom? I men this series, "Get Smart" is amazing, and it is good to know that the Bible is filled with the wisdom we need to live lives that look like Christ. In fact, we have gained wisdom when it comes to managing money and the importance of sex. So wisdom, according to this scripture is very valuable.

Proverbs 3:13-15 (NLT)

Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.

Well, this week we are going to gain wisdom on "Parenting" and most of the time as a parent I would rather not receive wisdom on this topic because it usually means I have to change something-ARGH!!!!

Being a parent of three children, well not really children anymore, ages 20, 18 and 14, I have done some good things and some bad. I really believe as parents we can fall into some traps. Doing things we actually believe are good, but yet push our children away. I always tell my kids that I have never been a parent before, so they need to be patient with me-ha-ha.

There is a false belief out there or "trap" that parents have. We somehow believe that if we say all the right things, do all the right things, plug them into the right schools, churches, activities, and keep them from experiencing the world; they will never make a mistake in life.

Elbert Hubbard said, "Where parents do too much for their children, the children will not do much for themselves."

You see it's not about doing everything for them, but maybe about living in a way that actually causes them to live that way too.

This verse in Proverbs is a great verse for us parents.

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

Train up a child in the way that he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

The word "train" literally means "to turn" and the word "up" literally means "with a taste".

So what this verse says to us as parents is we should turn our attentions with a taste of Christ in our lives. Isn't that sweet! So I began to ask myself, "What am I doing as a parent that will turn the attention of my children from the ways of this world to the ways of God?" "Do they see Jesus in the way I live or am I trying to tell them the way they should live?"

Parents, we have a tough job, and thank God for His grace and forgiveness otherwise we could fall into parent traps and never get out. And thank God for therapy or my kids would be all messed up-JUST KIDDING!

Doing this thing called life,

Mike