chip ingram effective parenting in a defective world

One of the saddest stories in the Bible is of a permissive parent. You may not be popular for a moment, but you’ll rest easy at night knowing that you’re saving your child from a life of destructive habits.

You’ll need to be firmly convinced that you’re preparing your child for a lifetime of fruitfulness.

But one way or another, you’ll need to enforce the values and biblical principles that God has spelled out in His Word and laid on your heart. You’ll probably need to check yourself occasionally to make sure you’re not over the top with your discipline, letting your mate reel you back in if you’re getting out of balance. Afterward you may have to go close yourself up in the bedroom and, with tears in your eyes, tell your spouse how bad you feel for being so hard on your kids. Sometimes that means you have to lay down the law. You are the only one in the world with the primary responsibility of giving your child what he needs, not what he wants. Stop worrying about being your child’s buddy. And you’ll have the pleasure of seeing your children experience the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Knowing how to say no firmly may make them hate you for a moment, but it will make them love you for a lifetime. It’s worth their complaints when you have to limit the amount of time your kids spend on the phone or on the Internet. It’s worth the groans from your kids when you won’t let them watch a movie that everyone else at school got to see, even the Christian kids whose parents weren’t quite so uptight about it. It’s worth the grief your daughter gives you when you have to tell her that she’s too young to date or that she’s getting into a relationship that’s not good for her. And though few people enjoy the inconvenience and pain of discipline, they look back on the hardship and almost always decide that the fruit was worth the effort. Your kids will feel most secure if they know you have set appropriate boundaries for them that you aren’t afraid to enforce.ĭiscipline, as Hebrews says, is painful for a moment, but it eventually yields fruit.

Chip ingram effective parenting in a defective world