Courageous Joy

Parenting/Discipline in Proverbs - Chapter 4

*Remember that there are many applications that I am NOT sharing - I'm specifically looking for verses that speak to me about how to parent and mentor my children.

4:2 a "For I give you sound teaching."

4:4 "Then he taught me and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments and live."

4:5 "Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding"

4:11 "I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths."

4:20 - 22 "My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart form your sight; Keep them the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body."

Great verses follow addressed to son (who could be any of us about guarding your heart)....

~We are teaching our children all the time. Sometimes the things that are "caught" speak louder than the things we think we've "taught". Are my unspoken attitudes about my "work" and "calling" - mothering, keeping a home, doing the laundry, paying the bills, day in and day out teaching, mirrored in my child's attitude when he is asked to work? I've got to work on ME.

~Can I say that the things I'm teaching my children are sound?

~Are the things my children learn and catch from me bringing life and health to them? BTW, this could be in the spiritual sense and in the very physical sense as well. Are my children learning how to take care of their God-given bodies from me? Am I teaching them patterns of eating and excercising that will lead to physical health? Am I showing them a heart of forgiveness or do they see bitterness taking root in my life? My children will follow me....where am I leading them?

~Will imitating my life - walking as I walk - bring life, health, wisdom, understanding to my children?

Father, help me to walk humbly before you with integrity. Show me any areas in my life where my attitudes will lead my children to a path of folly. Draw me ever closer and deeper into a passionate, extravagant relationship of love with you and help my children to learn and catch a wholehearted passion for you as they see it walked out in me. Draw them into a relationship of honor and obedience with Yourself and with their father and I. Father, most of all I desire to see Your miraculous, redeeming act of Grace in their lives. May each of them become wholehearted followers of Yours at the earliest possible age. (Oh and while I'm hear Godly spouses and Godly grandbabies would be nice, too.)