Think a minute…Scientific studies have shown that if you put a frog into boiling water, it will jump out immediately to save its life. But if you put that same frog into water that is normal room temperature, then raise the heat of the water very slowly, the frog will just sit there until it boils to death! Why? It gets comfortable with the water at each slightly raised temperature, so it does not realize how dangerously hot its environment has become—until it’s too late.
In a similar way, our children’s lives can be destroyed if we do not realize how gradually they are being negatively influenced by their bad social environment of the wrong friends—and even by our own daily bad examples as their parents. Before we know it, our kids have grown older without becoming the honest, self-controlled, loving, and courageous adults we want them to be. Even though we are living with them every day, we fail to see the dangerous direction their character and friends are taking them. We need to save our kids from this destructive, increasingly “hot water” by changing our unhealthy and wrong parenting before it’s too late.
Today and tomorrow, we will talk about some of the most important things that can help us train our kids well, so they can become the honorable adults we want them to become.
First, nagging and yelling at our children can become a bad daily habit that is actually counterproductive and does not work. An angry family is not a happy family! We might think getting angry will get our kids to obey; but the more we yell and nag, the more our kids learn to tune us out and take us less seriously. Then we may actually lose control and seriously hurt our children with our words, or even physical harm, to force them to obey us simply out of fear.
The healthiest, most effective way to discipline our kids is to take away their favorite possessions or privileges for a short time. This way they learn the natural consequences of their own bad choices and behavior. Then, they have only themselves to blame. That is how they learn to control themselves and change for the better.
Today you can ask Jesus to forgive you for whatever wrong, unhealthy ways you have been teaching and disciplining your kids? Only Christ can help you truly change, so you don’t make the same mistakes with your kids that possibly your parents made with you. Just think a minute….