Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:1-4 NAS95).
I recently visited my son and his family. It did my heart good to hear his friends tell me that my son spoke very highly of his parents. Nevertheless, I can tell you there were many mistakes along the way. Fortunately, we serve a gracious and loving God who turns our mistakes around for good.
Parenting is one of the hardest things to balance. On the one hand, you want to provide your children with the things you wish you had when you were growing up. On the other hand, giving them too much will spoil them. Then there is the discipline issue. Men tend to be too harsh. Hence, the instruction is not to provoke your children to anger.
Not provoking your child to anger will make it much easier for that child to honor his or her parents. So, what is the answer? It is to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
One of the things my wife and I always tried to do was provide our son with the moral reason why we do or don’t do something. Correction without that puts the parents’ wishes against the child’s wishes. While the response "Because I said so" may be appropriate in some situations, it should not be the norm. If it is, your child might begin to resent you. They might just see you as a bully.
So, I would encourage you to bathe in the light of Scripture, and as much and as often as possible, give your child the moral reason why they should obey you and God.
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