Teaching Tuesday / Consistency Counts

Oh, Wow! Here's my three babies about two and one-half years ago. They grow up so fast! It's like one minute they are toddlers under your feet, and the next they are tweens and then teens.

But they also grow up one minute at a time! By that, I mean that every minute of every day is shaping and molding their lives. What I do in THIS MOMENT counts! What I say in THIS SECOND is edifying or damaging! As their parent, I am either building up or tearing down - in the natural as well as the eternal.

Dear Parents, we have got to be intentional in parenting these precious jewels entrusted to our care.

One of the ways I can do that is be CONSISTENT with my parenting. If the rule is, my toddler isn't allowed to pull the books off the shelf, then to let them do that on my 'off days' is not okay. Off days? We all have them - 'I'm super tired,' or 'too busy' to take the time to parent like I should, etc. But what I've just taught my child is rules are flexible, push on them a little and test the temperature to determine if the consequences are worth the risk.

No I am not joking. Kids are a lot smarter than we think. When that toddler, looks at what they want that's forbidden and then looks at you, they are measuring whether mama or daddy is in a good enough frame of mind to get away with the disobedience .

Just FYI, your child can read you like a book!

The Bible tells us in Matthew 5:37,

"But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." (NKJV)

When we let little Susie do things today just because we are too tired, stressed, sleepy, or whatever to correct her, we have taught her that some days you can sin and get by with it . . . and some days you can't. What an awful responsibility we have just placed on our child.

"It's up to you to try to figure out what you can get away with."

As a parent, you might habitually apply grace and sweep it under the rug. I can assure you that as your child grows and becomes more spiritually responsible for their own actions, any open door of disobedience that they have opened - the devil will use to kill, steal, and destroy in their life! And the devil does not use grace, nor is he a gentleman. He attacks through any open door of disobedience that's made available to him.

So, it's our job to parent in such a way that the only response that we are teaching our children that is acceptable is IMMEDIATE OBEDIENCE !!!

I tell mine all the time that even delayed obedience is DISOBEDIENCE!

Basically, our job in stewarding their little souls is to teach them to obey, so when the Lord tells them to follow Him they will obey without hesitation.

James 1:8 tells us that a double-minded person is unstable in all they do.

I know that you are like me and do not want our children to be unstable in any way, so let's agree with Father that our directives will be simply 'Yes' or plainly 'No,' so that our children can learn from us what it means to NOT be double-minded.

Lord, help us realize how much our CONSISTENCY COUNTS!

#TeachingTuesday #ConsistencyCounts