'Discipline your children;(LAW AND ORDER 1)

'Discipline your children; you'll be glad you did-they'll turn out delightful to live with.' Proverbs 29:17

We're producing a generation of kids who are allowed to rear themselves with the aid of television, violent DVDs, and the Internet (which can be a minefield!). Often both parents work, leaving one child to supervise another. As a result they become a law unto themselves. 'A child left to himself disgraces his [parents]' (Proverbs 29:15 NIV).  This takes me into wondering what happens to single parenting? Are we doing our best in disciplining our children? ofcourse we do !!!! well the question is are we doing what we are meant to do as parents to help these kids? I guess this s a whole different topic that we will have to look into in the near future, but from my experience, the fact that you have to play everything to your kids all by yourself affects so much into disciplining kids. There are things you could have been able to pay attention to if you had a support of your partner but since you have to deal with everything around the house you can easily let other things go just like that and unfrtunately there are things which build a child's personality. Most of us are loving parents, but our children need discipline and rules to live by. Love has a backbone, it's called law and order. Without it, love is just license. 'A refusal to correct is a refusal to love...' (Proverbs 13:24 Parents don't have to be overbearing, but children do need consistent and disciplined guidance. Enforcing law and order isn't easy. But the alternative is a betrayal of our children and our God-given responsibility!  Failure to enforce law and order to gain short-term popularity with our kids always ends up costing us their long-term respect. Expecting younger kids to work out for themselves what's right and wrong is a burden they shouldn't have to bear; their neurological and moral equipment isn't sufficiently developed yet for such responsibility. The Bible says, 'Young people are prone to foolishness and fads; the cure comes through tough-minded discipline' (Proverbs 22:15 TM).  Your children learn to make good decisions from the rewards and consequences of dealing with law and order at home. So don't fail them!  Source;

YOU OWE IT TO YOUR CHILDREN

'Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me...' Isaiah 8:18

You may not be able to give your children everything you'd like to, or everything they want, but here are four things you owe them:  1) Connect with them. The story's told of a couple who decided to buy a new playpen for a friend, on the arrival of her sixth child. A year later the friend wrote back saying, 'Thank you for the pen. It's wonderful-I sit in it every afternoon and read, and the children can't get near me.' Seriously, what do you really know about your child? Their struggles, their heroes, their music, their friends, their fears, their dreams? If your answer is 'not much,' start making changes right away!  2) Listen to them.  If some of us paid as much attention to our garden as we did to our children, we'd be living in a weed patch. You'll never understand your child until you take time to listen to what they're saying-and what they're not saying.  3) Believe in them. As a child, the great Caruso was told by a music teacher that he had no talent at all. Parent, make sure your voice is the loudest. Build their confidence; give them the faith and self-worth required to overcome the obstacles they'll face in life.  4) Let them see God in you.  Three kids were discussing their fathers. One said, 'My father knows the mayor.' Another said, 'My father knows the governor.' Confidently the third said, 'That's nothing; my father knows God!'  Dad, Mum, do you know God? If you don't, commit your life to Him today.  source;

'Children are a blessing...' Psalms 127:3

THANK GOD FOR YOUR FAMILY

If you've forgotten how well off you are to have your family, read this: 'I'd finally had it. The children were loud, irritable and impossible. I was tired and fed up. My wife was tired and fed up. So I decided to run away from it all and have a day just for me; a day in which I did what I wanted. I was going to live it up and be as greedy as I pleased. I wasn't going to tend to anybody but myself. 'I zoomed out of the house with ?25. "There, I did it." I said to myself as I drove to the A-road and headed north. Well, I went to a shopping centre, had a great time in a bookstore and bought the collected poems of Walt Whitman. Afterwards, I drove to McDonald's and ordered two hamburgers, my own large fries and my own large cola. I ate everything without being interrupted, without wiping anyone's mouth, nose or bottom. Then I ate the biggest chocolate ice cream I could find. 'I was free! I was out of town! So I drove to the cinema and watched a film without buying popcorn, without someone sitting on my lap, without escorting someone to the bathroom. I was a free man. I was living it up - and I was miserable. 'By the time I returned home, everyone was asleep. As I slipped into bed my wife whispered, "We missed you." I answered, "Me too." I never ran away from home again!'  source;

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