Today we are on week six of our series, “The Power of a Praying Parent”, by Stormie Omartian. This week’s topic is about children honoring their parents and resisting rebellion.
I don’t know about you but it doesn’t take much to get me riled up, or shall we say mad. My husband and I always joke that we’re the opposite this way. I can get mad in 0-10 seconds flat, and I usually get over it pretty quick, whereas it takes him quite a bit to get upset and a whole lot longer to get over it.
I often wonder, what makes us the we are. What creates our personalities…. is it ingrained into us from the beginning, or is it something that’s learned along the way? If it happens to be a combination of both, which factor is the driving force? I think the answer to this varies for each one of us.
When I look at the way I react to certain situations I am fully aware that I have children watching me. Children that are ready to copy my every move. Oh, how I/we need to daily surrender self over to the Lord and seek to do His will. If we don’t were walking a very slippery slope. A slope that our children will follow us on, one that can change their lives and attitudes forever.
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”- which is the first commandment with a promise-so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Ephesians 6:1-3 (NIV)
When a child starts to display a rebellious spirit, especially one towards his parents, we need to make sure this attitude gets corrected quickly before it gets out of hand.
The Lord’s word tells us, “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord. “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming alliance, not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin;” Isaiah 30:1 (NIV)
If we are weak in this area, is we choose to ignore the problem, we are are harming our children’s relationship with the Lord. We are telling them that walking in the flesh is ok, we are teaching them to take their eyes off the Savior and onto things that please them for the moment instead.
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest full of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11 (NIV)
We can not be intimidated by our children’s actions. We need to stand firm against the enemy. We need to be in prayer and in God’s Word as we seek guidance in how to lead our children in the way they should go. We also need to be leaving an example for how they should behave by our own actions.
I challenge you friends to guide your children’s precious hearts towards the Savior. Don’t let the enemy win! Our children’s lives are at stake, we need to be bold and courageous as we stand for the Lord.
I’m so happy you’ve joined us for Legacy Leaver Thursdays please join us by linking up your posts!
- To link up go to the sidebar and get the code for the Legacy Leaver Thursdays button, right click and “save as” on the code and then upload it into your post. Or you can provide a direct link somewhere in your post linking back here. That way other bloggers can join in too.
- Then copy and paste the direct link from your post, (not your blog url), into the linky tool below.
- This link up will be happening every Thursday at Leaving a Legacy. You can link up your posts that deal with leaving a legacy to your children and other loved ones. These posts can vary from spiritual lessons, to homeschooling tips, to recipes and homemaking skills that you want to pass down. You can also link up posts that offer encouragement to the community. I will do the best I can to read as many posts as possible throughout the week. However, if there are times that I miss you, know that I’m so grateful that you linked up and was so blessed to have you here!
- In order to create an encouraging community here, please take a moment to visit the person in front of you. Thank you!
For those of you that link up throughout the month, I will be choosing a “featured blogger”, for the following month. The featured blogger will be someone who actively participates in the link up, and who’s posts have really touched the community. They will receive free advertising for their blog on my sidebar for that month, and also be allowed to submit one approved guest post during that month.
This month’s featured blogger is a dear high school friend, Alyssa Santos. Alyssa has a unique writing style that I love. She’ll make you think, challenge you to grow and draw you closer to the Lord in her writings. Please take a moment to visit her.
Alyssa Santos – Rocks.Roots.Wings.
Many Blessings~
Linking to:
Winsome Wednesdays
Thriving Thursdays
Proverbs 31 Thursdays
Thought Provoking Thursdays
The Weekend Brew
Shari, I can get upset easy and depending on the issue it may take me awhile to get over it or not. Jeremy is the same way. We have really been striving to watch our emotions and reactions because our kids are watching! Thank you for this reminder!
Yielding our rebellious hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit would be an awesome example and legacy to our children! Thanks for the great post & for hosting & God bless!
Friday night, after the conference and after small group meeting, we got home and found one of our kiddo’s has been sneaking her itouch and lying about it — for two weeks. We found her pretending to be asleep, locked in guilt under baby blankets…. Tired, we had to address the issue and discipline her in love. This is always a challenge, but especially late at night and especially lying. We talked about Hebrews 12:11. Thanks for the reminder to pray. It should always be my first defense.