SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/11/2019
3:42 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Negative Command”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:4
Message of the verses: “4 And
you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the
training and admonition of the Lord.”
We
are looking at the first part of verse four as this section is the sub-section
of the main section entitled “The Submission of Parents.”
Some
children will see that the things that parents are doing in order to protect
their children actually seem like that they are provoking their children to
anger, but that is not usually the case.
Children go through different phases in their growing up years and in
normal Christian families the children will learn to love and depend on their
parents for a period of time, usually up until the time when they become teen
agers and then they get that first idea of going out on their own and doing
things that they want to do, which is probably not what their parents want them
to do. I have read that raising children
is kind of like living on a farm with a corral which would be fenced in. At first the children are not allowed in the
corral, but when they get older they are allowed to go into it as they are for
a time when they are in their unsupervised.
This could be like a privilege for them to go there and if they do not
do things that are wrong they will receive more times there. There will come a time when the parents will
let them out of the corral such as when they get a driver’s license and you let
your children out on the road the first time by themselves, usually after hours
of driving with the parents along. I
remember the first time that I let my daughter drive our care alone, well her
brother actually went along, and it seemed like at least an hour that they were
gone, but it was probably only 20-30 minutes.
After a while this how they both got to school each day and the drama
was not as great as the first time.
Smothering
and favoritism are ways to provoke your children to anger, and I have to say
that a father can usually favor a daughter over a son just because she is daddy’s
little girl. I told my grandson one day
when he was in trouble for provoking his younger sister that he had better get
use to her always being right and he being wrong because he was the older
brother. Unfortunately this kind of thing
is usually true. If a parent or parents
push achievement beyond a reasonable bound, such as a parent wanting a child to
fulfill their dreams, then this can provoke a child to anger.
The
opposite is also true and that will bring about discouragement and this happens
when a parent makes it seem as if the child can never do anything right.
Fifth
way is provocation will occur by parents if they fail to sacrifice for their
children, making them feel unwanted. Sometimes
a child will feel like they are just not wanted in their lives and this is the
way the parents make them feel and they can become resentful.
Sixth
way of provocation comes from failing to let children grow up at a normal
pace. All children do not grow
physically, mentally, or spiritually at the same pace and this can cause
problems if the parents want all the children to be “normal.”
Seventh
way states John MacArthur: “is that
angering children is that of using love as a tool of reward or punishment—granting
it when a child is good and withdrawing it when he is bad. Often the practice is unconscious, but a
child can sense if a parent cares for him less when he is disobedient than when
he behaves. That is not how God loves
and is not the way he intends human parents to love. God disciplines His children just as much out
of love as He blesses them. ‘Those whom
the Lord loves He disciplines” (Heb. 12:6).
Because it is so easy to punish out of anger and resentment, parents would
take special care to let their children know they love them when discipline is
given.”
The
eight way to provoke children is by physical and verbal abuse. This is probably the most difficult thing to
get over once it has happened to a child or teenager. What I have to say to people who have gone
through one or more of these eight things we have discussed is to ask the Lord
to help you to forgive your parents, for no parent is perfect, and if one holds
a grudge it is harder on that person than the one that they hold the grudge
against. Just think that if you have
accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as you Savior and Lord that you have been
forgiven of every sin you have committed, or will commit which will make it
easier once you think about that to forgive your parents for the mistakes that
they have made in raising you. Forgiving
someone and being forgiven by someone is a truly beautiful thing to happen.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Remember that God has forgiven me of
everything and so I am to forgive others just as He has forgiven me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To be continually filled with the Holy Spirit
so that I can live the life that God wants me to live, and that includes
humility and forgiveness of others.
Quotation from “Love in Action:” In a
cold world that refuses to recognize a loving God, words such as the psalmist’s
might to be expected. But why do we hear
these cries so often among believes? Is
it possible that we have so focused our attention on those outside the church
that we have neglected our responsibility to each other? God has given to us, His children, the
solution to the lonely, hopeless heart.
In His Body, the church, no one should be passed over. We are commanded to encourage one another.” (You will have to read Psalm 142:4 from
yesterday’s SD in order for this to make sense.
9/11/2019 4:36 PM
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