Coach's CornerAugust 2016
This newsletter I’d like to encourage you to face the fact that you don’t know how to parent. WHAT??? I know that those of you that know me know that I always try to encourage – so why this word? The greatest gift I could wish for any of my girls, and for you, is the gift to realize that you can’t parent well without God’s help.
If you are convinced you know what you are doing, you won’t seek His help. If you realize you don’t have all the answers, then you will seek the One who know all things. As in grieving, in seeking, you will find. Seeking is the best gift we can give ourselves and our children. This does not mean that we should discard all the logical parenting principals that we have learned over the years. Use those that wise people have found to be profitable and in the midst of using them, confidently seek God for His Spirit to guide us into All truth and wisdom in parenting and every area of our lives.
So what great gift can we give our children (biological or spiritual) this summer and every day that they are in our presence? Well, as sure as the sun rises and we pay taxes, our kids will face hard things like we do. What greater gift than to give them some survival techniques or habits that will help get them through hard times and allow them to enjoy their days in spite of what could be crushing blows.
Here are some ideas of gifts: Most of these are found in Galatians 5:22-23.
- A happy childhood and the ability to enjoy life without material things
- A filter for our mouths and thoughts
- Self-control for our actions and behaviors with a firm unshakeable belief that consequences follow disobedience
- The ability to obey and respect the position of authority even if the person appears not to deserve it
- The ability to realize that we can choose joy and happiness or we can choose misery
- Love of others, not just of self
- A heart that is confident that things will work out, and that worry is not the answer
- The ability to wait to receive good things
- The insight to realize that the world does not revolve around them
- Faithfulness and loyalty that are so rare
- Belief in a Good, Good Father and that they are loved by Him
- Deep conviction, from the earliest of childhood memories, that the Bible is true
- That going to church is a good thing
- That we should honor God with our lives and even our money
- That our words should be true only