Grandparents, Are You Being Fair? – Part 2

Yesterday we looked at how grandparents are unfair to their own offspring by abdicating any responsibility for the welfare, behavior and building of character of grandchildren by spoiling them and allowing them to do as they please. But there is another way that grandparents can be unfair. That is favoritism. Favoritism can create extremely difficult situations. We see in the Bible of the problems that occur in families. Look at the problems that occurred because Rebekah favored Jacob and Isaac favored Esau, Genesis 25:28. It resulted in deceit, a family split apart, and hate and lack of forgiveness that continued … Continue reading

12 Suggestions For Raising Godly Children

So you want to bring your children up in God’s ways so that they will follow Him. Here are some suggestions for ways you can help achieve this. 1. Pray for and with your child. Let them see the reality of your faith as you turn to the Lord in prayer when problems or hard times come, or just for God’s help with decisions each day. Encourage them by your example to praise God for the blessings of life every day. 2. As you pray for your children, pray for those they will grow up to marry. From the time … Continue reading

Fathers and Sons – part 1

Does the son become like the father? When we look at some people in the bible we see that a godly parent does not necessarily translate to godly offspring. We only have to look at Eli and Samuel to see that. Both their sons abused their positions and did not follow God, see I Samuel 2:12-17 and 1 Samuel 8:1-5. The opposite can also be true, where a godly parent has a godly son. Take the case of Saul and Jonathon Saul’s problems started almost at the beginning of his reign. Samuel told Saul to go to Gilgal and wait … Continue reading

Parenting God’s Way – part 2

“Modern mums equate the word wellbeing with ‘happiness’, as if happiness is all that counts or is at least more valuable than discipline, responsibility or overall health,” says social trends researcher Sure, we all want our kids to be happy, but to expect happiness all the time in life is unrealistic. Loss, hard times, sorrow, disappointments come. They are part of life. How are our children going to cope with them if they have not been trained properly, during their growing years? My children both tell people they had happy childhoods. We spent lots of happy hours, reading to them, … Continue reading

It’s Up to Parents to Act

Pick up any newspaper and you will see evidence of crime, violence, rape, murder, brutality, theft, drug and alcohol abuse, road rage, the list goes on. Given today’s world and the way society is headed, it has never been more important that parents take their parental responsibility seriously. Too often parenting is being left to others rather than the child parents or is simply abdicated all together because it is easier to let children get away with misbehavior than to correct it. It may be in the short term. It is not in the long term and sadly our society … Continue reading

The Choice for Parents

In the forums Amand44 and several others,expressed anger and disappointment at the lack of supervision that sees children roaming the streets. The same thing happens here in Australia. Some parents have forgotten that parenting is an active choice. Parents need to do more than just breed children and then let them do as they like. They need to parent their children and not be afraid of using discipline and corrective measures. Mostly what I believe children today need is time invested in them. Too often Mom and Dad are at work. Children come home to empty houses or are left … Continue reading

The Influence of Music

Have you ever noticed the power of music to influence your moods, attitudes and actions? It’s no wonder experts have discovered music therapy. Last week at church we sang two songs. One was, ‘To live is Christ.’ That song has encouraged me and challenged me throughout this week to look at how I respond to what is happening in my life. Am I responding as Jesus would? Am I showing Christ to the world in the way I speak, the things I say and do? ‘No matter what price I pay, I choose to give this life away.’ Notice it’s … Continue reading

Gospel Consequences and Tough Love

We have the gospel of life, the world needs to to hear it. It won’t unless we persist in prayer and in sharing the truth with family, friends and neighbors. One of the consequences of living a godly life is persecution. Jesus warned his followers they would face persecution but to be of good cheer because He had overcome the world,John 16:33. Mention of persecution was not a one off. You will find this idea repeated in Matthew 5:10-12, Matthew 10:23, Matthew 24:9, Mark 10:30, and John 15:20 In the current economic crisis people are struggling for something or someone … Continue reading

Keep On, Keeping On

Years ago in Australia we had ad for some paint and the slogan was, ‘keep on keeping on’ I have to say at this point, advertising fails on me. I remember the slogan but never remember the product. I do know it’s much the same in the Christian life we need to keep on, keeping on. Sometimes people might ask us to pray for them because they don’t think God will listen to them. I had a friend say to me once, ‘I don’t pray. God wouldn’t listen.’ Of course I could have replied ‘How much notice did you ever … Continue reading

Wisdom and Warnings from Proverbs

The book of Proverbs contains great wisdom. Here is one example. The passage is Proverbs 30:5-9. Over the next couple of days I intend to look at it verse by verse and see what truths can be gleaned from it. Proverbs 30:5 tells us ‘Every word of God is flawless.’ Sometimes people will challenge us, claiming the bible is full of contradictions and errors. This statement is invariably made by those who don’t know God’s words or are repeating what they have heard someone else say. The truth is every part of God’s Word will stand up to the closest … Continue reading