The Role of Children and the Wisdom You Need to Succeed at it. Part II

Children get a bad rap nowadays because they seem to be rebellious and unwilling to conform to what  their authorities tell them to do. However, every son and daughter knows that deep in their heart, they just want to please their mom and dad. And sometimes, it can be hard to do because we don’t understand why our parents would tell us to do or not do certain things.

Whether you have great parents or not so great parents, you do have the best father in the world if you have given your life to Jesus. Our heavenly father! If nothing else, follow His lead and do what He tells you. And what is He is telling you today?  Your heavenly father wants you to know that it pleases him for you  to obey your parents.  In the end, God has a way to work everything out for your good, but you need to do your part and obey God in this one thing.

Honor Them

Obeying is important and necessary, but let’s not forget that God tells us that children must honor their parents too.

Ephesians 6:2

2 “Honor your father and mother”-which is the first commandment with a promise

Hold on a second, I can hear you asking some questions about this already. You want to know that if you obey them, aren’t you honoring them too? Is it possible to honor them by obeying what they say? Well, it is true that you show your parents some honor by obeying them. But children need to give honor to their parents even beyond obeying them. For instance, when your parents tell you to do something that you don’t want to do, like take out the garbage or clean your rooms, you may end up doing it, but you do it with a bad attitude.

“Fine, I’ll do it!”

You obey them, but you are not really honoring them. But imagine how it would honor them if you said. Yeah sure Dad, I know that it needs to get done and if I don’t do it then I am leaving it to someone else to take my responsibility. Now even if you don’t say that always, but think that, it will change your tone of how you respond to your parents.

Here is a story to illustrate this vital matter.

This one time, one of my three sons was going on a field trip with his class and they were going to Sea World. It was a pretty nice day and he did not want to bring a coat. I told him he had to take one. He wasn’t very happy about it, but he did it.

When he got home that day, he told me about his field trip and how glad he was that he had his coat. Many of the other kids without coats were freezing later that day when a cold front came in and brought some cold drizzle.

And he said thanks for making me bring my coat.

That was honoring to me.

Kids, when you realize that your parents were right about something, tell them that they were. You honor them by doing that. And it helps you grow in your trust of your parents and it helps you mature. In addition, as you do mature things, it will help your parents treat you as maturing kids.

One time, one of my sons had an opportunity to see a movie with a friend. He was going to see a certain movie that I had not seen. I told him that I wanted to check that movie out first, he told his friend that his dad had to make sure the movie was appropriate first.

It turns out that I did not think it was and he had to let the other boy know.

I know that was not the easiest thing to do. And I did not tell him to give all the details about why he was uncertain he could go. He did it and I felt honored that he was willing to tell the other boy that. It showed me that my son was maturing and growing and honoring me in my decisions.

It’s Not Easy

Kids, it is not always going to be easy. In fact sometimes it will be hard, but God will use those in your life to grow you and help you.

Finally, when you are Obeying and honoring your parents, It benefits you. What? It seems like it benefits the parents by giving free labor. What kind of benefit is there for me?

Well, first it brings a better life.

A Better Life

Ephesians 6:3a

3 “that it may go well with you

Life will go better if you obey and honor your parents. Sometimes it will go better immediately. My son was warmer and more comfortable and happy that he brought his Jacket that day. Sometimes it will be better in the long run. My other son is probably not experiencing the benefit visibly of not having gone to that movie with his friend. But, when we don’t fill our minds with pictures and phrases that are not glorifying to God, we are less likely to have those things influence us negatively and more likely to have a more positive life.

So we can experience a better life by seeing the positive results soon and not experiencing the negative results at all.

A second benefit to us is that we will have a longer life.

A Longer Life

Ephesians 6:3b

that you may enjoy long life on the earth

When we obey and honor our parents, we live a better less stressful life and we get to enjoy a longer life than we normally would on the earth. These are the benefits that you will get to experience.

Obeying God is the best way to live and for you, in the role God has you as a child living in your parent’s household, we honor and obey God by honoring and obeying our parents.

That may not always seem like the best thing to you, but the God who created this world in all of its uniqueness and perfection just for us, has also designed our roles in such a way that we live best by following his plan.

Isn’t that something that you want as a kid? To live life in the way that it is best for you? Of course, it is. The thing is, that to do that, you need not only the help of your parents in helping you grow, you need the help of God in your life through the Holy Spirit.

A Call to Action

If you are a kid and have never received Jesus as your Savior, or don’t remember ever doing that, why don’t you do that now. Jesus wants to help you and give you not only long life on earth, but life forever with Him in Heaven.

If you want that, then all you have to do is come before God and first recognize that you are a sinner, you have disobeyed what God has wanted you to do at some point in your life. Recognize that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is God himself that came to earth as a Man. Recognize that He lived a perfect life and died for the wrong things you have done. And acknowledge that Jesus rose back to life again after 3 days.

When we know those things and come before God confessing those things and willingly receive Jesus, we get the blessing of having God come live inside us and He will help us to live the best way if we let Him.

If you want that, then  pray the prayer that is at the end of this post.

One more thing for the parents.

It is hard to be a kid today. I know it has been hard in the past too, but I think it gets harder all the time.

We need to be praying for our kids, that God would strengthen them and work powerfully in their lives to continue on the path that God wants them on.

Parents, we need to let our kids know that we stand behind them and are there to help them and support them and love them.

Pray to Receive Jesus

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. So I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.

Now go, and show yourself worthy of being God’s child.

© 2016 MANLY TRAINING

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Eduardo Quintana is also featured as an author on Lightworkers Media