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Be a Courageous Parent
By Administrator | October 15, 2006
Parents, I am convinced that selfless, sacrificial love for your children must include clearly defined, clearly articulated and clearly upheld loving limits. These limits are the rules you have wisely chosen to train your children to obey. If we understood the severe eternal consequences for not setting and keeping these limits we would work harder to establish and keep them.
The greater the possible consequence, the more precautions we must take. We warn children not to suck on a battery, place plastic covers over outlets, and build nearly impenetrable fences around high voltage wires; all for their protection.
In my travels giving seminars on internet safety and parenting, as well as working with parents as an elementary school principal, I have heard many parents’ excuses for not setting clear, loving limits for their children. Here are just a few:
“I don’t want to invade my son’s the privacy.”
“I trust my child.”
“My daughter might be upset if I asked her to stop.”
“I don’t want to control who my child plays with.”
“My child doesn’t even know what a worldview is, how can she get a distorted worldview from TV shows?”
“Sooner or later he has to choose what to watch, so I watch with him and explain why we do not use those words, treat people like that or engage in sex before marriage.”
It seems that too many parents are suggesting that their children please not suck on the high voltage wires when they should be building a fence. Let me encourage you to be a courageous parent. Build the fence, then teach, warn and reinforce why you built it.
May God’s grace and peace be with you,
Mark and Ellen Strohm
Matthew 18:6
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Mark 9:42
And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.
Luke 17:2
It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.
You can download Mark’s book Loving Limits here: Loving Limits
Topics: From Mark | 2 Comments »
October 20th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
This is an exceptionally good post, Mark!
You line about the high voltage lines is especially vivid. It really communicates!
Thanks for the work that you and Ellen are doing.
God bless,
-bill
October 20th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Mark:
Just discovered that your blog was not on my blogroll. Please accept my apology for the oversight. Thought I’d done this some time back. It’s there now, though!
-bill