Teaching children to make right choices

I've been thinking a lot about parenting the past few days.

Here's what I know:  I was not a perfect parent.  Nor am I an authority on parenting.

Yet, I do know this.

The most important thing that you can teach your child (outside, of course, about a relationship with Christ) is how to make wise decisions.

As my kids grew older (in their teenage years) they heard me say that over and over again, "I hope (and sometimes I said pray) that you will continue to make wise choices."

Now that they are all grown, adults, and living on their own, I rely upon that ability in them - the ability to make wise choices.

Choices are so important.  Zig Ziglar has written, "you are free to choose, but the choices you make today will determine what you will have, be, and do in the tomorrow of your life." 

Paul writes in Ephesians 5:15, "Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise."

How do we learn to make wise choices?

By making choices!  By making good choices and learning from the negative and bad choices that we have made in the past.

I would encourage you, if you have a younger child, to begin that process immediately.  To teach your child to make choices incrementally, starting with small things, medium things, and then by the time they are teenagers and  young adults, bigger "things".

If a parent makes all the decisions for their child and never lets that child make any decision on its own, that poor child is doomed to immaturity - and a lot of hurt and woundedness in life.

It's like learning how to walk.  We take a step.  We stumble.  We fall.  We get right back up and try again.  We learn.

We learn to make wise decisions by making unwise decisions.

And when your child makes wrong decisions, let them experience the consequences of those decisions.  I would encourage you not to cover it up, or let it slide or make excuses for them.

Think mid and long term.  Not just short term.

"Teach your children well," Crosby, Still, Nash and Young used to sing.

And pray, and pray, and pray, and pray - as my father prayed for him and my father's father prayed for my father.

Just a thought for a Thursday.