If ever we received parenting advice that was good for us \u2013 it is the example and wisdom of our Heavenly Father. When we speak to our children \u2013 we expect them to listen to us \u2013 instead of continuing to play their video games. When God speaks to us \u2013 He expects us to listen to Him. God\u2019s words are different than ours because His words have divine power and when HE SPEAKS \u2013 things happen. I mean\u2026.serious words that made something out of nothing in creation. And His words are just as life-giving and filled with promise and hope as they were in the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, following His lead, shouldn\u2019t OUR words be life-giving and promise-and-hope-filled to our children as well? This is an excerpt from the text I sent to my children yesterday: \u201cGood morning to my sweethearts. Praying this is a blessed day for my family with God\u2019s wisdom, His strength, His grace, and His tender loving care in our lives. He\u2019s such a good parent to us. He provides all the ways to receive His blessings and we do our best to do those ways. And He rewards us for it. I think of the love the two of you have for your children and how they are being blessed as they follow your ways and guidance. And the more you display your love for God and His ways, the more they want to follow God also. They\u2019re getting rock solid foundation as you lead, and they follow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember challenging our parents with our words? We might have said \u201cMom, can I go over to my friend\u2019s house?\u201d Mom responds: \u201cNo.\u201d You: \u201cBut why not?\u201d Mom: \u201cBecause I said so.\u201d \u201cBecause I said so\u201d wasn\u2019t enough for us. We needed reasons why not. Mom might have better said: \u201cBECAUSE, you haven\u2019t finished your homework and you didn\u2019t clean your room.\u201d Aha! Those were words that made sense and brought clarity to our understanding.
And, so it is with God. He could have easily spoken: \u201cObey me because I said so\u2026\u201d But He gave us clear \u201cbecause\u201d and \u201cif you\u201d responses. My mom would go on to say \u201cYou can go to your friend\u2019s house, IF YOU finish your homework and clean your room.\u201d God presents us with His promises. IF YOU do this, you will be blessed. If we are not blessed, it is BECAUSE we disobeyed and now we suffer the consequences. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIF YOU are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.\u201d (Isaiah 1:19)
\u201cIF YOU obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.\u201d Deuteronomy 28:3-4
\u201cIF YOU do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.\u201d Deuteronomy 28:15-16<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t want to give the impression that I am the epitome of being a good parent and have the right to give parenting advice. But I do know Who a good, good Father, our Heavenly Father, is and how I have been blessed to be His girl. I\u2019m Daddy\u2019s girl and I want to please Him. I know I please Him when I honor Him, obey Him, and talk about Him. I hope, today, that you see what I am saying objectively. You are no less of a Daddy’s girl or Daddy\u2019s boy than I am. Our responsibilities as Father God\u2019s sons and daughters are simple. They are the same responsibilities that even Jesus, God\u2019s Son, had. He wanted to do the will of His Father and so should we \u2013 especially when it comes to being an example of God\u2019s love, His mercy and grace as we parent our own children. And isn\u2019t that the true description of Parenting 101 for us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If ever we received parenting advice that was good for us \u2013 it is the example and wisdom of our Heavenly Father. When we speak to our children \u2013 we expect them to listen to us \u2013 instead of continuing to play their video games. When God speaks to us \u2013 He expects us to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20185,20186,20187],"tags":[20180,20182,1210,1769,664,20178,20179,20184,2149,1201,1202,39,20181,40,9419,17249,6769,13549,20176,20177,2566,17248,20183],"class_list":["post-14097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting","category-parenting-101","category-parenting-advice","tag-because","tag-because-i-said-so","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-daddys-girl","tag-divine-power","tag-filled-with-promise","tag-follow-commands","tag-foundation","tag-good-good-father","tag-heavenly-father","tag-hope","tag-if-you","tag-inspiration","tag-life-giving","tag-obedient","tag-obey","tag-parenting","tag-parenting-101","tag-parenting-advice","tag-parents","tag-willing","tag-willing-and-obedient"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14099,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14097\/revisions\/14099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}