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Why Limits Are An Act of Love
By mstrohm | April 3, 2010
Have you ever tried to plant grass on the side of a hill? On my drive to school I would pass a small Baptist church, which has gone to battle trying to grow grass on a slope leading to a small water retention basin. Early in the summer heavy rains washed out the young growth forcing them to re-rake and re-plant the seed. Unfortunately, three more storms came and three additional efforts were put forth. With the hot summer came a dry spell. They seeded and watered faithfully trying to get grass to grow enough to be established. Regrettably, by the time fall came, the grass died and gullies formed forcing them to start all over again. I felt bad that an entire summer’s hard work proved to be futile. Because there was no grass on the hill to start with, nothing held the seed on the slippery slope.
If there had been established grass, the roots of the older vegetation would have prevented the soil from eroding giving the new seeds a stable soil base as well as protecting it from the sun, wind and rain. This protection would have given the new seeds a chance to grow. The parallels with parenting today are striking. To under parent and not take an active role in the lives of our children is to leave them vulnerable on the side of the hill. We would be expecting them to take root without the benefit of our established, deep roots. Trials, temptations, societal pressures and the like all come like rainstorms. If we are not engaged and taking an active role through establishing and enforcing loving limits, we are leaving our children exposed on the side of the hill one step away from a disastrous rainstorm.
God has established a system for grass to reseed itself on the side of a hill. While the older, established grass with its deep roots keep conditions stable and weather the storms, the young, susceptible grass gets a chance to establish roots of its own. So we as parents need to sink our roots deep into the Word of God. Loving limits help protect our children so that they can establish roots of their own. My desire for you as parents is to understand the importance of and be encouraged to establish and maintain loving limits.
By loving limits, I am talking about basic rules to live by as well as the expectations we place on our child’s behavior and performance. These loving limits can include our expectations from how our children are to treat one another to how much they are to devote themselves to schoolwork or extra-curricular activities. This body of rules and expectations are present in our parenting even if we are not aware of them. For some parents, they are well thought out; for others, they are formed by default.
Listen Live on Wednesday April 7 at 11:00 AM while Mark discusses this topic. You can call (917) 932-1635 to ask questions or comment during the show.
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Setting limits for your child can be difficult. We sill explore how limits are an act of love toward your child. Join us for the discussion!
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June 14th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
- A PRAYER FROM JESUS -
This prayer is from Jesus that we may here from Him, that He may meet our needs. It only consist of three simple steps.
1) We need to read one scripture. This will focus us in the word that brings everlasting life.
2) Since this prayer is from Jesus we need to direct our prayer to Him personally. Too often Christian focus they’re prayer’s to G_D the father. Scripture proclaims that Jesus should be the focus of our prayer.
3) The simplest part of this Prayer is to ask Jesus one question. Please, all that is required for this question is to make it simple. Let Jesus Himself finish the question when He gives you that understanding through prayer.
The PRAYER
The scripture that is the focus of this prayer is “ACTS 2:38″. It’s not necessary to do any study into this scripture. Jesus Himself will bestow the understanding that will resonate in your heart.
The most important part of this prayer is that we need to direct our prayer directly to Jesus. If you normally would say Father in your prayer, change your focus from the Father to Christ Jesus by lifting Jesus name up every time you would normally use Father in your prayer.
Maybe the hardest part of this prayer is the question that we need to ask Jesus. For man as we are, always try to understand the question and may add many additional quires. The simplest question is all that is required.
Simply ask Jesus ‘WHY’