The Importance of Parental Homework
“My mother and father deserted me when I was 6 years old and left me with other relatives who walked in and out of my life. At a tender age I had to struggle to care for my younger sibling. I grew up with much hatred.” It is heart-wrenching to even imagine the experiences of this now adult as he reflected on his formative years.
It has to be extremely challenging for parents today as they struggle to maintain their sanity in these times when faced with diverse social, emotional and financial cross-currents. However, parents must never ignore the importance of organizing themselves to do their homework. Psychologist Dr. James Dobson said: “Children are not casual guests in our home. They have been loaned to us temporarily for the purpose of loving them and instilling a foundation of values on which their future lives will be built.”
With all the negative influences impacting the home and the family, as parents you need to be very vigilant, and seek to create the kind of atmosphere that will enable your youngsters to grow up with a high level of confidence and a good understanding of who they are as well as the purpose for which they were created.
Today, children are faced with horrors within their homes; challenges within the church; and stress within the schools. They are drawn into the subtle embrace of drug lords, pedophiles, and pornography; seduced and often won over by foreign cultures that dump their immoral garbage into their minds via mass media, music and mixed messages. Some are viewed as products for display and not persons to develop; cargo for cash and not children to be cherished; things to be abused and not assets to appreciate.
Too often the blame for the ills of society is placed on the school, church, and government, and to a large extent they cannot escape blame; however, the home is the first institution into which a child enters. It is from there that the child rises or falls; where progress or paralysis is initially determined.
God in speaking about parental homework said to “Train up (discipline, shape) a child in the way he should go [in keeping with his individual gift and bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6 - Amplified Bible). The word child here means an infant six years and younger. The social scientists agree with this period, and therefore underscore that the home is the first institution that may shape the life of the young child for good or for evil. If parents therefore do not do their homework, the negative consequences for the child, the family and the society may be great. The hard honest question that one may have to be asked is this: “Could it be that the problems of violence, indiscipline, domestic abuse, disrespect for authority, delinquency, or drug abuse have their roots grounded in the soil of poor parental homework?”
By homework, I mean affirming your children by letting them know how special they are despite their shortcomings; I mean speaking positively into their lives; I mean not abusing them physically, psychologically, verbally, sexually, or through neglect or abandonment. I mean coming alongside them and empowering them with moral and spiritual values.
Hear these words: “My father was basically a sperm donor. I have had no relationship with him and I do not have any interest in having any either. He means nothing to me.” “My mother would beat me with any object that was available, including a hammer. She said some awful things to me that I cannot get out of my mind. I am over 50 years now and I would go down by my mother and still hope that somehow she would hug me and say I love you.” These expressions are not isolated, but are repeated several times by many adults today. Parents, do your homework, your children are depending on you.
It has to be extremely challenging for parents today as they struggle to maintain their sanity in these times when faced with diverse social, emotional and financial cross-currents. However, parents must never ignore the importance of organizing themselves to do their homework. Psychologist Dr. James Dobson said: “Children are not casual guests in our home. They have been loaned to us temporarily for the purpose of loving them and instilling a foundation of values on which their future lives will be built.”
With all the negative influences impacting the home and the family, as parents you need to be very vigilant, and seek to create the kind of atmosphere that will enable your youngsters to grow up with a high level of confidence and a good understanding of who they are as well as the purpose for which they were created.
Today, children are faced with horrors within their homes; challenges within the church; and stress within the schools. They are drawn into the subtle embrace of drug lords, pedophiles, and pornography; seduced and often won over by foreign cultures that dump their immoral garbage into their minds via mass media, music and mixed messages. Some are viewed as products for display and not persons to develop; cargo for cash and not children to be cherished; things to be abused and not assets to appreciate.
Too often the blame for the ills of society is placed on the school, church, and government, and to a large extent they cannot escape blame; however, the home is the first institution into which a child enters. It is from there that the child rises or falls; where progress or paralysis is initially determined.
God in speaking about parental homework said to “Train up (discipline, shape) a child in the way he should go [in keeping with his individual gift and bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6 - Amplified Bible). The word child here means an infant six years and younger. The social scientists agree with this period, and therefore underscore that the home is the first institution that may shape the life of the young child for good or for evil. If parents therefore do not do their homework, the negative consequences for the child, the family and the society may be great. The hard honest question that one may have to be asked is this: “Could it be that the problems of violence, indiscipline, domestic abuse, disrespect for authority, delinquency, or drug abuse have their roots grounded in the soil of poor parental homework?”
By homework, I mean affirming your children by letting them know how special they are despite their shortcomings; I mean speaking positively into their lives; I mean not abusing them physically, psychologically, verbally, sexually, or through neglect or abandonment. I mean coming alongside them and empowering them with moral and spiritual values.
Hear these words: “My father was basically a sperm donor. I have had no relationship with him and I do not have any interest in having any either. He means nothing to me.” “My mother would beat me with any object that was available, including a hammer. She said some awful things to me that I cannot get out of my mind. I am over 50 years now and I would go down by my mother and still hope that somehow she would hug me and say I love you.” These expressions are not isolated, but are repeated several times by many adults today. Parents, do your homework, your children are depending on you.