 So we're going to come into our third session on a woman who pleases the Lord she parents God's way And if you would turn in your Bible to Ephesians, you might say we're gonna be in Ephesians the whole time No, we're not the next two sessions will be out of Ephesians and into some other portions of God's word But we're going to look at I what I think is one of the key passages on parenting Ephesians 6 1 to 4 I'm sure most of you would agree with me that the family is in trouble We are not living according to what God's word says Divorce is rampant and not only is divorce rampant, but now the big thing is just don't get married And so you just have couples living together. They decide not to get married. We have a lot of moms raising Children on their own We have children that are being brought up in a totally different culture with very materialistic thinking We're entertaining our kids to get to death as I mentioned last night We go we take him from a pacifier to an iPad We don't teach our kids worth work ethics. We don't teach our children respect for authority and a lot of things going on in the home with sexual abuse and physical abuse and so We have all these things going on that are against us In fact a lot of children now are being raised in homes where they don't have a mom and a dad They have a mom and a mom or a dad and a dad And so how confusing is that in fact? I even read just recently probably some of you saw this news article Where a couple had a baby and they decided not to give it a name and not to dress it either Female or male but to let it the child decide if it wanted to be a boy or a girl I mean, this is the kind of culture we live in The family is in trouble The family is in trouble and yet ladies did you know the family was instituted by God before any other institution? Even before the church and we know how important the church is to our father and yet the family was instituted by him Before the church so what does a family look like? What should it look like? Well Paul's going to give us a little glimpse in the first four verses of Ephesians chapter 6 as he writes concerning the parent-child Relationship and we're going to look at parenting God's way Children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right honor your father and mother Which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long upon the earth And you fathers you see that you provoke not your children to wrath or anger But bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord Now you have an outline there before you and we're going to look at the child's twofold Responsibility to their parents with a twofold blessing and then the parents threefold responsibility to the child Now obviously this is not all the word of God has to say I'm parenting There are many many proverbs that I would encourage you to study and to look at that talk to this Important topic of parenting Paul also has something to say in Colossians about parenting But I believe this right here is probably the classic passage on parenting So let's look at the first responsibility of the child to the parent children obey your parents in the Lord now Listen very carefully. It's very interesting that Paul addresses children in This letter to the church at Ephesus why because this was a letter that was read And so it must mean that there were children present in the worship service now I am a big advocate of you know, I liked it, you know, we have children's church and we have Sunday school But evidently in biblical times Children were in the worship service And so if your church is a church where the children are in your worship service I personally believe children should learn how to sit still in church I remember I don't know if I've told you this story, but you know I was raised in a Baptist minister's home and my dad never let us leave the church service I mean we've got our rear ends beat for that But I remember sitting on a pew with this lady that used to take me home with her every Sunday I had to go to the bathroom so bad But I knew that if I got up and left the worship service I'd be in big trouble so I just tinkled on the pew and Went all over her instead, but I Do believe that children should learn how to sit still and how to listen. We need to teach our children how to listen I'm really proud of my daughter-in-law now. She's teaching our eight-year-old grandson Jackson who goes to our church on You know to listening to what grandpa saying and writing down words He doesn't understand and they go home and talk about them And so you know children need to listen This is just furthers your opportunity as a mother if they do sit in church to then go home and talk about the Sermon and what the pastor said Now since Paul is addressing children, what is the definition of a child if the children are to obey their parents? What's the definition of a child a child is someone who is under the care of a parent? This would not be an adult child. Okay, I don't have to obey my father I do have to honor him, but I do not have to obey him. It's an adult child in biblical times It would probably be someone from the early elementary age to late teens or early 20s This is who Paul is addressing and he says they are to obey This is their first responsibility. Now. What does it mean to obey? Well, the Greek word means to listen under Ladies listen to me very carefully your child is to listen to what you tell them to do and then they are to do it They should obey the spoken word And I would encourage you if you have a child that doesn't listen Encourage them to repeat to you what you just said. I know my daughter. I mean she's 33 now She has four children of her own, but many times I would say Cindy you need to go clean your room So I'd go upstairs an hour later Cindy. You haven't cleaned your room. What is the deal mom? I forgot so she got disciplined for forgetting so now that I'm older and wiser I would have had I would have said before she went upstairs Cindy What did mommy just tell you to do mommy you just told me to clean your room Okay, go clean your room and if your room's not clean and you know 45 minutes of her room was really a disaster It probably takes two hours, but then mommy will discipline you do you understand? Okay, and then I would follow through with what I told her to do So some children need to repeat back to you what you have told them to do They are to listen under they are to obey the spoken word now. We have some wonderful examples of this I think about Jesus who became subject to his own parents remember when they couldn't find him and they said son Don't you care about us? We've been worrying about you and he was in the temple teachings 12 years old And he obeyed them became came back to Nazareth with them and was subject to them. I think about Isaac I mean, you know his dad Abraham says come on Isaac. I'm gonna offer you on the altar I'm like really how many children today? Do you know would go do that come on? Blessing mommy's gonna go put you on this altar, and we're gonna kill you and she go You know She wouldn't do it But I mean what child would do that and Isaac went and he let his dad put him on the altar and bind him I Mean Isaac knew that he was commanded to obey or I think about Jephthah's daughter Remember Jephthah's daughter and judges 11 her dad went out and He vowed to the Lord that the first thing he saw after he came back from battle that he would offer as a sacrifice And the first thing he saw was his daughter and his daughter said daddy do to me Whatever you told the Lord you do now. There's some discrepancy there did did he kill her? Did you really offer as a sacrifice or did she was she just a virgin the rest of her life? And I know we there's some pros and cons on both of those views But the point is that these children obeyed their parents now How many kids do you know today would say daddy do with me whatever you promise to the Lord? You know if it's put me on the altar do that or if I can't be get married I have to be a virgin the rest of my life daddy you do whatever God told you to do Not very many that tells you how you know we've come a long way, baby, and it's not a good way Of course we have some examples of children that did not obey their parents, and it was disastrous the prodigal son He's an example He lies sons in first Samuel to I mean we have a lot of examples of people that did not obey their parents and Paul goes on to say that children are to obey their parents in the Lord Which means it honors the Lord Ladies you know when you see a child of a Christian mom or dad, and they do not obey the Lord You know what it's like to me. It's like taking your fingernails and putting them on the chalkboard You know it's just like oh Or it's just the same thing when you see a wife who doesn't submit to her husband And she claims to be a Christian It's like taking your fingernails and doing that on that It's like oh in fact my husband often says Susan a wife's submission is the biggest part of her sanctification Ladies it honors the Lord children should obey their parents because it honors the Lord and he also says for this is right It's the righteous thing to do Ladies if you are not teaching your children to obey you to obey the spoken word you are not training them in righteousness Paul says for this is right This is the righteous thing to do so if you are in the habit of Giving your child a command and you allow them to whine Or you allow time out counting to three coddling If you do that again, I'll spank you if you do that again, I'll spank you I've sometimes stopped discipling. I said you know you've told that child three times to obey you and they haven't obeyed you And so if you're doing any of those things then you are not training them to obey you and You are not training them in righteousness Paul says they are to obey because it's right Children should obey the spoken word and they should do it with a joyful heart And may I say this to you in love how you train your child To obey you is how they will respond to their heavenly father I know because I feared my father greatly not because he was a you know He didn't beat me up or anything but I obeyed the spoken word because I knew if I didn't my dad was spanking me and I had a I had a healthy fear of my earthly father Which helped me to have a healthy fear of my heavenly father once he saved me at the age of 30 And so you're training them and how to respond really to any authority their school teachers their president Their heavenly father if they embrace him as Lord and Savior Now can you imagine what kind of world we would have if every child obeyed this command? It'd be a little bit of heaven wouldn't it? Lot of sorrow and grief we'd be spared wouldn't it well Paul goes on to give the second Responsibility of the child this has a two-fold blessing on your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise So the second responsibility of the child is to honor their parents now this The command the first command was to the child the smaller child this command is to all of us ladies It doesn't matter what age we are we are to honor our parents because it is one of the ten commandments Honor your father or mother that your days may be long upon the earth and that it will go well with you Now what does it mean to honor? If we are to honor our parents, what does it mean? It means we are to prize them value them Revere them ladies. We are a far cry from this in our culture You know what we do? Well a lot of us kill our parents I mean how many kids now are killing their parents this and their grandparents. I mean it's bizarre you read about it almost every day in the paper But what we do with our parents which is totally foreign to the biblical world You know in the biblical world they didn't have nursing homes and all that stuff the parents actually lived with the family But what we do in our culture is we put our parents in nursing homes and then the nursing home drugs them up Until they fall and then they die in fact I know this to be true because I had a grandmother who was actually strangled in the nursing home at the age of 98 and It was all over the newspapers and my mother and her siblings won a million dollar lawsuit because they actually killed her in the nursing home and now my dad much to my Disgruntled and we tried to get his wife to let my mother's dead And so he has a wife that is not my mother and we tried to get her to let daddy come live with us And she would not do that instead she put him in a nursing home even though his mental faculties and everything is fine she put him there a year ago and He's in a veteran's home about two hours away from me and I go try to go see him once a week but anyway, I know because One of the doctors there actually said that it is the goal Once they get the the men and the women in the veterans home Even though most of them play the men most of the the people in my dad's place are men because they're veterans The goal is to drug them up enough so that they eventually fall and die and have them out in a year And when they say out they mean like in the grave And that's what they did to my dad when he first got in there my dad never took any drugs None he was you know never took drugs. They drugged him up. He started falling and We appealed and begged they finally took him off all drugs and guess what he's back to his normal self And he's you know walking and and he's like a normal person But that's but everyone else I see in there is you know, they're they don't they look really weird because they're drugged up There's not honoring our parents honor our father and mother Paul mentions this is the first commandment with a promise. What's the promise? Well, he's gonna give the promise in the next verse was which is the two-fold blessing for the child who obeys the command to honor Their parents and by the way ladies my husband used to often tell me when his parents were aging he said and they're both gone now and He used to say Susan how we treat our parents now is how our children are going to treat us and So I keep asking my kids if they're gonna put me in one of those places when I get old and Charles always says don't worry mom We've worked it out Cindy's gonna take you so Anyway But there's a blessing here. He says so it'll go well with you. You know what this means You'll be happy. You'll be useful. You'll be virtuous In fact, I think it would be an interesting survey to see how many people dishonor their parents and to see how it fares with them Somebody ought to take statistics of that people that honor their parents or dishonor them The second blessing of honoring your parents is that you will live long on the earth You will live long on the earth Proverbs 10 27 says the fear of the Lord prolongs days But the years of the wicked will be shortened Ecclesiastes 7 17 says do not be wicked nor be foolish. Why should you die before your time? And I think some good examples of this Absalom He was one that disobeyed rebelled against his father Dave and remember what happened He was out riding around and got his hair caught in a tree You know his hair was very long got caught in a tree and he was still hanging in the tree and Joab came by and You know killed him with a sword. It didn't go well with Absalom He did not live long on the earth for his rebellion against his father Or how about Eli's sons? Eli's sons were not only taking all the prime cuts of the meat that were supposed to be sacrificed, but they were committing adultery With women on the door of the tabernacle of the temple and Guess what they didn't live very long First Samuel 411 says this the Ark of God was captured and the two sons of Eli Hopni and Panias died God took them early in life. Why? They dishonored their father. They dishonored them Again, I think it'd be interesting to take some statistics on those who dishonor their parents see how long they live Well Paul now shifts from the role of the children to the parents to now the role of the parents to the children There's three responsibilities of the parent to the child according to this text Paul says you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath now the Greek word for fathers is in the plural and it really means parents So mothers you're not off the hook In fact, I think mothers have a greater challenge because you are the ones that are with your children more than the dad So you are more than likely more than him to provoke your kids to wrath more than the dad You parents do not provoke your children to wrath That is the first responsibility of the parent to the child In fact, Paul says something very similar in the sister epistle Colossians Fathers do not provoke your children to wrath least they become discouraged Now what does it mean to provoke them to wrath? Well, it means to provoke them by harsh words angry words teasing them Mercilessly being overbearing having unreasonable demands. In fact, because I think this is such a huge problem I am going to give you 25 ways From Lou Prioli's book the heart of anger in ways in which parents provoke their children to wrath as well as some from John MacArthur's book on parenting So you might want to write these down. I think they're worthy of noting The first way that children or parents provoke their kids to wrath is lack of marital harmony Ladies if you want to provoke your child to wrath just be a husband and wife who fight and argue all the time In fact, when our children were growing up if my husband and I had something we need to discuss that was tense We waited till the kids went to bed at night or we'd go into the bedroom and even now I've noticed with the grandchildren If we have something that we need to talk about and you know We start getting a little more intense with each other not that we don't argue or anything like that In fact, that's one of the blessings now now that I'm redeemed and I don't have this temper that I used to have You know, we can actually talk and not get upset But you know sometimes, you know, you have things you want to talk about and I noticed when when things get a little more serious All of a sudden the boys go, you know, what's gonna happen here? So, you know in fact the other day this totally off the topic, but they were having this discussion You know who could you know who could beat up who better and somebody said well who could win over grandma and grandpa? And the boys go grandma. She could beat him up, you know So of course because he's been sick for a year. He's not them in the best of health But if you want to provoke your child to wrath just fight all the time with your spouse That will provoke them to anger number two Having a child centered home and what I mean by that is everything's around the child Oh, we can't come to church today because you know, she needs an app or oh, we won't be there They've got a soccer match and everything's well, honey. What do you want for lunch? Well, honey, what do you want to do or? Ladies you're the parent. They're the child You're the parent there of the child In fact, my kids used to say mommy why and I said because I said I'm the mom. You're the child Number three modeling sinful anger If you want an angry child be an angry mom In fact, I was discipling a woman several years ago. She had a terrible temper And I remember coming into her home and all three of her kids are just angry And I thought oh my and then as I begin to get to know a little more she I begin to notice holes in the walls And I go what's that? Oh, that's why I tried to throw the telephone at my husband like really and you know Eventually got divorced and I don't know what's happened to her kids But I could tell she was an angry mother because I could see it on the kids faces They were angry and that's how they handled conflict anger number four Discipline them in anger if you want an angry child discipline them to anger or discipline them while you're angry You know sometimes what I would have to do with my kids is You know go to your room. I'll be there in a minute and calm myself down. So I didn't kill him, you know In fact, my children will tell you I spanked much harder than their father because I didn't want to spank as often And so I made it count but And even my grandsons will say in fact Josiah said the other day he goes Ethan you want to obey grandma She spanks really hard So You know But you've got to do it not in anger. You can't beat him to a pulp you do it with Hopefully self-control Number five scolding you want to you want to provoke your child to wrath just scold them You idiot, you know, you know just just scolding them all the time in fact one time that when I was being discipled Still am being discipled now by two older women But when my kids were growing up one of the ladies that discipled me she said Susan Because I had a hard time loving my daughter Cindy because she was the rebel in the family. God saved her now So I'm thankful But she said I want you to write down every day at least not write down But I want you to tell your daughter every day at least one thing you're thankful for about and I was like really Are you serious? I don't know of one thing. I'm thankful for But I had just been in the habit of finding everything negative about her and scolding her and you know Cindy was an angry child probably a lot of that was my fault number six Being inconsistent with discipline Today it's not okay for you to hit your sister in the face, but tomorrow. It's okay for you to hit your sister in the face Ladies if you want to provoke your child to wrath just be inconsistent with discipline There's no standards, which is number seven having double standards You know you tell your child to do something, but you yourself don't do it In fact, I remember we my husband I counseled this couple many many years ago and We said you want to raise little hypocrites? You're raising them because you guys are hypocrites You're not at home what you are at church and guess what all three of their kids are older now and have kids of their own Then guess what they're all hypocrites They're all hypocrites don't have double standards number eight being legalistic Being legalistic will cause your child to be provoked to rap. They can't possibly Live up to those standards If you're gonna have rules in your home, they need to be governed by God's word not because of some standard You've set up that God doesn't step up number nine Not admitting you're wrong and asking for forgiveness. I Know this was something my husband and I patterned in our home with our children when we sinned against them We would tell them we did and we would ask for forgiveness And so you need to be willing to humble yourself. You are not above Asking your children to forgive you Number 10 constantly finding fault you never do anything right. Why can't you be like your sister? You want to get an angry child just constantly find fault number 11 Parents reversing God given roles We are seeing a lot of this in our society more and more women are going back to work women are men are staying home being mr. Mom we are raising also a generation of young boys who are effeminate Because men aren't men anymore and so you want to get an angry child have reversed roles number 12 Not listening to your child his opinion his side of the story. I know there's sometimes you can't do that But ladies we need to listen to our kids Even if you're tired, and you don't you don't feel like it, you know listen to them listen to them talk listen Take them seriously about stuff. I remember when Cindy was growing up. I told my husband I said honey, she's suicidal. He said no, she's not and I said oh, yeah She is there's something very wrong and after she came to know the Lord she told us she was not only suicidal She was doing drugs. I didn't know that part of it But I knew something was wrong. I didn't take her I knew her something was very wrong I wasn't taking things seriously listen to your child number 13 Comparing them to others Why can't you be like so-and-so's child at church look at her she plays you know 500 classical pieces on the piano. How come you can't do that? What's wrong with you? Why can't you be like your brother? number 14 not taking time to just talk Our son Charles would want to talk when I was ready to go to bed That's when we find Charles plopped on our bed at night, and I was like really I am tired But that's when Charles wanted to talk especially as he became a senior in high school And he was getting ready to go off to master's college and seminary and he seemed to want to talk a lot And I wanted to go to bed But take time to talk number 15 not praising or encouraging your child as I mentioned the lady who mentored me told me She want me to praise Cindy every day You know we seem to find fault with our kids, but do we ever think I'm a good job, honey? Good job. Thanks for obeying mommy. Thanks for emptying the dishwasher Mommy's so proud of you and by obeying mommy you're obeying God praise encourage them number 16 Not keeping your promises You want to provoke your child to wrath don't keep your promises We used to tell our children because we are in the ministry that when we had planned something with them especially a family activity we always say if the Lord wills Because inevitably it became the joke on Friday night that we had family time planned But guess what that's when someone in our church decided to go to the hospital or whatever We'd have those things happen And so we usually took our kids with us But we tried as much as possible to keep our promises if we told our children we were going to do something We did it and so unless God hindered us and that's why we always said the Lord willing number 17 Spanking in front of others I know sometimes it's not possible to not do this But I would encourage you not to discipline your child in front of their siblings I think that can be embarrassing or to cut them down in any ways or to mention their sins in front of their brothers or sisters number 18 Not allowing enough freedom now don't allow too much freedom, but you know I know some people some parents that are so protective their kids can't even go to the bathroom Unless they ask mommy You know, especially as they get older ladies. You need to allow your kids some freedom in a righteous way, but some freedom Number 19 allowing too much freedom Okay, there's there's a balance When our kids started getting older one to be with their friends I'd say where are you gonna be who's there is the parents there? No, then you're not going mom You're the only one. I'm not the only one and you're not going. I'm sorry. You're not going What's gonna? What are you guys going to be doing together? And so They had curfews in our home on Saturday night We didn't let our kids do anything even in their teenage years because we believed that Sunday morning worship started on Saturday night And so we wanted our children to be awake and alert on Sunday morning and not you know asleep and so these were our rules and you know, we enforced them and and These were some freedoms we didn't allow but that's up to you and your husband number 19 or 20 mocking your child Mocking him I've seen this, you know little children will start crying and I'll hear the mom go Ladies that's not appropriate. Okay, and there's other ways that we mock our children You will provoke that child to wrath number 21 physically abusing them I Do believe in discipline but not physical abuse So I'd be very careful about overdoing that number 22 ridicule or name-calling kind of goes along with mocking Number 23 unrealistic expectations a lot of parents want their children to be what they want them to be And so they have unrealistic expectations number 24 practicing favoritism and That can be very difficult Sometimes it's it's hard not to love one child more than the other our daughter used to say mom You guys love Charles more than me And I would like in my mind like you're right because he's compliant and obedient and you're not but You know, it was hard when they were young not to practice favoritism But ladies that will provoke your children to wrath or you allow one child to have five cookies But the only child only gets other one gets one I mean unless they're being disciplined that's showing favoritism Now John MacArthur gives just a few more three three more on his book that Lou Pirelli doesn't mention I thought they were good neglect Neglecting things like food Bads I see some kids. I don't think they've had a bath in a week And I mean girls I like to be clean and I'm sure our children do too or have their you know diaper change I see some women let their kids go around dirty diapers for a couple hours I'm like really so neglect, you know food bathe them clothe them Not attending their school functions. This is the way we neglect them being disinterested in their life If they have a soccer game go to it if you can that you know be involved number two John MacArthur says is withdrawing love You're not being affectionate towards them not telling them that you love them and Then the third one he brings out is excessive discipline Now instead of provoking our children to wrath notice what Paul says we're to bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord Now what does that mean? Well training means nurture which entails discipline and Admonition involves words of encouragement ladies. This is the second and the third responsibility of the parents to the children Let's take the first one nurturing discipline Ladies, this is one way you show your children that you love them is to discipline them In fact, do you know that's the way that we know we belong to God? whom the Lord loves he Disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives and Paul goes on to say if you're not disciplined then you're illegitimate You're not a son and So if God loves me enough to spank me when I need a spanking and I need them quite often Then we need to love our children enough to discipline them Ladies parenting is not hard if you'll do it God's way. It really isn't You bring more hardships on yourself by not disciplining your child when they need it Proverbs 22 15 says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child But the rod of correction will drive it far from him Proverbs 23 13 do not withhold correction from your child if you beat him with the rod He will not die Beat him with the rod and save his soul from hell the proverb says let me tell you I am one of seven children We all got beat, you know not with the rod But with other things some creative ways of discipline and guess what? We're all still living. We did not die They're all we're all seven of us are still living And I'm glad my father did beat us with the rod Proverbs 29 15 the rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother Ladies I don't know how you feel when you're at this grocery store the mall You see these kids screaming Debbie and I've got to witness this a lot in airports You know we're waiting for our flight and these kids are on leashes and they're kicking their parents and screaming and in fact One of our most recent ones. I think we were in the Denver Airport and Debbie gone somewhere That was the night we spent the night in the Denver Airport and Anyway, I hear this child and you go I'm not going in that And I'm like and the mother's not doing anything. I'm like really and that's what I feel like it's not the child It's the mother you want to go Do you realize what shame this brings to you? It's not the child a child left himself brings shame to his mother Ladies the Lord as I mentioned loves us enough to discipline us And so we should love our children enough to discipline them now Paul mentions the third responsibility of the parent You know if all we did was beat him that wouldn't be so good. Would it then we provoke him to rest So we bring them up in the admonition of the Lord. This is words of encouragement ladies we should encourage our children with Spiritual things training them in the things of God teaching them biblical principles We should do this when we sit down when we lie down when we walk in the way as Deuteronomy 6 6 says We should listen to them. We should pray with them. We should answer their questions. We should let them tell them tell us about their problems These are all ways we can encourage our children We must not tear them down by yelling at them calling them unkind names Ladies we must encourage our children words of admonition, you know, there's enough children in this world that are unloved and We as Christian mothers need to bring up our children In the word and the admonition nurture an admonition of the Lord now It's interesting Paul says we bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord Because he's already said that children are to obey their parents in the Lord, right? In other words, this honors the Lord Just like a child who obeys and honors his parent it honors the Lord you as mothers when you do these three things that Paul says You know it you don't provoke your kids to wrath you bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord It honors the Lord it honors the Lord Someone once said most homes nowadays seem to be on three shifts The father's on the night shift the mother's on the day shift and the children shift for themselves But ladies Paul gives something a tad bit different for the family who belongs to the Lord. What is it? Here it is the child's twofold responsibility with the twofold blessing there to obey their parents They are to honor their parents the twofold blessings are that it goes well with them, and they will live long on the earth The parents threefold responsibility. They are not to provoke their children to wrath They are to bring them up in the training of the Lord and thirdly They are to bring them up in the admonition or encouragement of the Lord If you have parents that are living and you are under their authority as a child Are you obeying them? And are you doing it with a joyful heart? If you have parents that are living whether you're young or old are you honoring them by caring for them? Ladies Paul makes it very clear in another place if anyone does not provide for his own Especially those for of his own household. He is worse than an infidel. He is worse than an unbeliever and has denied the faith Have you given over your God given responsibility to the government or someone else Do you genuinely look at honoring your parents as a precious gift from God? And may I remind you how you treat your parents now is how your children will probably treat you someday As a parent as a mother are you guilty of provoking your child to anger by any of the ways that we just mentioned a few minutes ago? Or maybe some ways I didn't mention Is your child angry? Have you stopped to consider if it's because of something you're doing and not because of something they're doing And then what about your discipline as a mother? Have you bought into the world's way of discipline time out coddling giving chances counting to three Ignoring bad behavior or worse Drugging your child so as not to have to deal with his child like ways I'm appalled at the number of kids now that are on drugs because they're ADD or ADHD. I'm like all kids are ADD We all are I Mean that's a child. We don't let the kids be kids anymore And what about admonition? Are you teaching your child the things of the Lord? They tell us 1% of the child's time is spent under the influence of Sunday school 7% under the influence of public school 92% under the influence of the home That's a huge amount of time that you as a mom have to train your child Not only in the things of the Lord but things like manners which kids don't have anymore Caring helping others teaching them how to work All the things that we've lost in our culture In conclusion, we have a beautiful picture of the family The children are obeying and honoring their parents and the parents are not provoking their kids But teaching them in the ways of the Lord along with careful and consistent discipline Is this a picture of your home last week? If not, what do you need to do to change so that your home will be one who honors the Lord? That your home will be one that shows others that you are a woman who pleases the Lord by parenting God's way Father, thank you so much that you have left us instruction in your word for how we are to raise our children And again Lord, I ask that you forgive our nation We are not raising our children in this manner We are murdering our children in the womb and then the ones that we do give birth to We are Giving them up for someone else to raise while we go off to work And I pray that we as Christian women would see the high calling of being a mother and a wife To raise children for the glory of God to bring them up in the nurturing admonition of Christ is such a blessing and a privilege and so Father help us to get back to the high calling of women Especially as we think about Mother's Day tomorrow and Our calling as a mother and so Father help us and even as grandmothers Also, Lord, I pray that you will help us to know how to better honor our mother and our father Lord, we know that also is a responsibility of not only little children, but older children as well And so Lord give us grace again. We cannot do any of this apart from your spirit I thank you that he helps us. I thank you that he convicts us and He's the one that gives us grace to carry these things out Bless us as we now go into time of fellowship of eating together and enjoying one another and may our Time together around food be rich. We thank you that you give us these things to enjoy Thank you for the ability we have to enjoy food and thank you that you have created it for us We pray these things in your name