A father's holiness, continued
As fathers we are always teaching our children, even when they are very young. I think that it is when they are very young that the father's personal holiness, his connection with the Lord, is especially important. (The mother's too, but my interest is in fathers.) Infants are learning very basic, very important lessons. They are learning that they are loved, that they are loveable, that they are valuable, that the world is a good place, that they are safe.
I can't list all the very basic foundations that are laid in the child's life in the first few years, primarily by the loving relationships between husband and wife and other members of the household. The loving relationship of the father with the eternal Father, and the Son and Holy Spirit makes this possible.
As the child gets older, he or she gets more observant more affected by specific behaviors in addition to the general atmosphere of the home. Somewhere I read an anecdote that stuck in my mind. Someone asks a little boy what his father does. The boy answered, "My dad watches." "What do you mean?" the questioner asked. "He watches TV. He watches mom work around the house. I think he watches girls, too."
We want not to be sending out mixed messages. We have to be what we want our children to think we are. We have to be what we want them to grow to be.
I think we should have two guiding principles in mind as we raise our children. James Stenson, author of several books on parenthood, expresses one of them this way: " Successful parents see themselves as raising adults. They view their children as adults in the making." I would add that raising children to be Christian adults means that we teach them godliness.
The second principle I think is important, and perhaps easy to loose sight of, is that we must help our children be what God wants them to be right where they are at a given moment, at whatever age.
More to follow.
I can't list all the very basic foundations that are laid in the child's life in the first few years, primarily by the loving relationships between husband and wife and other members of the household. The loving relationship of the father with the eternal Father, and the Son and Holy Spirit makes this possible.
As the child gets older, he or she gets more observant more affected by specific behaviors in addition to the general atmosphere of the home. Somewhere I read an anecdote that stuck in my mind. Someone asks a little boy what his father does. The boy answered, "My dad watches." "What do you mean?" the questioner asked. "He watches TV. He watches mom work around the house. I think he watches girls, too."
We want not to be sending out mixed messages. We have to be what we want our children to think we are. We have to be what we want them to grow to be.
I think we should have two guiding principles in mind as we raise our children. James Stenson, author of several books on parenthood, expresses one of them this way: " Successful parents see themselves as raising adults. They view their children as adults in the making." I would add that raising children to be Christian adults means that we teach them godliness.
The second principle I think is important, and perhaps easy to loose sight of, is that we must help our children be what God wants them to be right where they are at a given moment, at whatever age.
More to follow.
posted by hdistel at 3:34 PM
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