Raising Godly Children

Before I had children of my own, I was very confident in my expertise in raising children. I have great parents who I feel did a great job raising me and I have a degree in elementary education. That must qualify me to be an expert in the area of children. I can remember sometimes seeing a mom at the mall or at a restaurant and thinking how she obviously was uneducated, because of a certain way she was reponding to her child. I can recall the phrase, "When I have kids......" coming out of my mouth more times than I care to remember. And then it happened. I had kids of my own. My clear view of the right and wrong way of raising children started to get fuzzy. It is so easy to sit back and look at a someone else's situation and decide objectively what the most educated course of action would be. It is quite another to be tired, frustrated, hungry, hot, "experiencing monthly hormones", or any other distraction and be able to respond in a Godly, wise way in every situation. Dealing with my own children has not been objective. It is extremely subjective. I have often wondered if my intense love for them has sometimes hindered my ability to discipline them with a sound mind. Love makes a person blind. So, I pray that God will allow me to see my children as they truly are. I also pray that he will give me wisdom to teach them the things that will have eternal value. If I fail to teach them how to go to sleep in their own bed, how to eat their vegetables, how to be polite and mannerly in every situation, but succeed in teaching them that God is big enough to create the world, but kind enough to stop and whisper in their ear, then maybe that will be enough.