Ouch

Sept. 19

One of the elders at our church recently sent out a list of questions that would be good to ask our children.  They were all great questions.  Things like where they are with their bible reading, or how they were doing with their prayers, but there were three in particular that made me flinch when I read them.  They were:
1) Are you more aware of my encouragement, or my criticism?
2) Is there any way I've sinned against you that I've not repented of?
3) Does my relationship with your mother (father) make you excited to be married one day?
Of course, the best time to start thinking about asking your children these questions would be before you ever bring them home from the hospital (maybe keep them posted on the door of the fridge so you're constantly reminded about the outcome of your actions), but we can still do our best to turn things around if because we've messed up somewhere along the way.    Spending some time in prayer before going to your children, and then praying with them is a good way to go toward correcting things.  Ask the Lord beforehand to help you resist the temtation to get defensive.  Then, when you're done, ask the Lord to help you remember these things every day.  I've sat down with mine before and confessed to handling something wrong, or behaving in a way I would not want them to.  It's humbling, but much better than trying to act as though you're always right (they know better anyway).

Becky