Those Whom I Love...

This morning in church, I started talking with one of the ladies in our Bible study. We were discussing the kids going to Youth Group. She asked if I liked their school. I was honest (they have attended worse, but no school is perfect). We discussed the problems we see in the schools these days and how difficult it is to keep kids 'straight.'

Then, she told me that she used to be a secretary for the school system (my mom used to be a secretary for the schools, my mother in law used to be a secretary for the schools) so I felt a bit more of a connection. She told me that when she retired ten years ago, the administrators were saying that "If we can get girls through the age of 15 without getting pregnant or becoming drug addicts, we are doing good. If we can get boys through the age of 15 without becoming drug addicts, then we are doing good."

WHAT????

I have higher hopes for my kids than that.

Let's be real here. If I had to choose between having "straight A" students who are brats, backtalking, cruel to the weak, dishonest, drug addicts, and/or pregnant and having loving children that stick up for the weak, read constantly, believe in saving themselves for their future spouses, talk to us when they have problems, and love the Lord, but get average grades; which do you think I am going to pick?

Granted, I would wish that my kids could be all those things and get straight A's also; but, if my choices were limited in that way, I would be satisfied knowing that I had done a good job if they were loving the Lord and growing in Him.

Then, this evening we went to a friend's house who we knew in Germany because we were saying good bye to a shared friend visiting from Germany. While we were there, I was told how polite, mature, and friendly my children were. It has been SO long since I have received a compliment on my children that I almost forgot that the way I am raising them IS the important part...not their grades.

I am not a perfect parent. God was a perfect parent, but even Adam and Eve made mistakes. My kids are going to make mistakes. If I am a good parent, I will let them learn from those mistakes. Some parents call that 'tough love' but I call it real love. Loving them enough to let them fly and sometimes fall.

Proverbs 20:11

Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.

Proverbs 22:6

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:15

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:13

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

Proverbs 29:15

The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.

Deuteronomy 8:5

Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

Job 5:17

"Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty."

Revelation 3:19

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

God bless.