Raising wise children (His Encouragement)

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Welcome! Welcome, dearest friends, to His Encouragement: Biblical Inspiration for Your Thursday. Every week, I join a few blogging friends to bring you a Bible passage and a little hope-filled discussion. We pray that these devotionals help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you.

Today’s Scripture

My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.

Proverbs 23:15, ESV

Being a parent is not easy even in the best of times, but challenges and crisis can bring an entirely new level of difficulty. Heightened stress and anxiety can override our natural responses and leave us, as parents, with a shorter fuse – sort to speak. We may find that our usual patience wears thin or disappears altogether and we lose our temper quicker when our children misbehave.

Being a parent is a blessing that not everyone who desires it is able to partake, but it is also a serious responsibility. We are being entrusted with shaping, molding, raising a potential future brother or sister in Christ. Yes, these special people may start out as babies and have to grow through childhood and adolescence, but the end goal is to raise godly men and women who will become part of God’s kingdom.

Yes, I know all-too-well that it is easy to lose one’s temper when the baby is shrieking, the toddlers are refusing to eat their breakfast, your work email keeps dinging with notifications of new messages, you have a twenty-minute deadline to turn-out an “emergency” work request, and you haven’t even eaten or showered yet.

Discover your priorities

But in the grand scheme of the universe, what matters most? As parents, we have to decide what our priorities are. It can be even more difficult to keep focused on these priorities during times of crisis. However, knowing decisively what the most important things in your life and for your family are can provide that focus you need to get through the storms.

I cannot tell you what your priorities are or will be. This is something you need to carefully contemplate yourself, pray over, and discuss with your spouse, if you have one.

Yet I can urge you to get a piece of paper or journal and write down everything that you feel is important to you and for your family. Then order these items from most to least important. Here are a couple ideas to get you started:

• Nurture a home environment built on love.
• Raise children to know the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.
• Maintain a safe and secure home, regardless of circumstances.
• Encourage healthy living.
• Be wise stewards of our time and finances.
• Promote certain character traits and virtues (list them out).
• Limit material possessions to those that are necessary. or useful.
• Demonstrate compassion towards others through acts of kindness and service.
• Etc.

If you want to take the exercise one step further, I highly recommend the four part Building Family Identity series by DiscipleMama.

If you already have figured out your family priorities, it is perfectly acceptable that you may have to adjust them during times of crisis, hardship, and challenges. Now might be the right time to re-visit your priorities and make sure they still reflect what is most important for you and your family.

Also remember that times of crisis will not last forever. As the saying goes: “This, too, shall pass.” There are brighter days a head even when we seem stuck in the midst of a dark storm.

My dream

As for me, my ultimate desire is to be able – years from now when my children are grown – to repeat the words of Proverbs 23:15, “My [child], if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.”

We cannot force our children to believe a certain way or live a righteous life; however, as we raise them from babies to young adults, we can provide them with the toolkit (character traits, life lessons, and godly example) that will assist them in making wise choices once they have reached the age of independence.

I long for that glorious day when I shall stand in the presence of the Lord, under the shade of the Tree of Life, and surrounded by my whole family… my children and possibly their families, my parents, my siblings and their families, and all the people I care for. That is my dream for me and my family. What is yours?

What verse has touched your heart this week? Share in the comments below!

Be sure to also visit my fellow bloggers and read their encouragement for your Thursday as well:

• Trisha of Joy of Reading
• Nicole of The Christian Fiction Girl
• Jessica of A Baker’s Perspective
• Becca of The Becca Files
• Gina of Stories by Gina
• Rev. Rebecca Writes
• Andi of Radiant Light
• Leslie of Words of Hope
• Claudia of By Claudia Moser
• Keneesha of Women Loving God’s Way

Hi there, blogger. Would you like to join us in sharing encouragement from the Word of God every Thursday? Don’t be shy! Contact Trisha or Nicole today!

Featured photo by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash.