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Our Bible text for our message this morning comes from the book of Ephesians 6 and I would invite you to turn there with me to Ephesians 6 in verse four, a single verse for this morning and one which we won't even begin to exhaust with what we have to say in our time together here today. Ephesians 6:4, the Apostle Paul says,

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
We all share carnal tendencies on parenting to one degree or another, those of us that are fathers and mothers now, perhaps those that are children observing parents as you're growing up and getting into the age of perception and understanding, we need to kind of think through the way that we approach parenting. Some people, no doubt some of you, want a checklist on how to handle parenting. "Give me a list of rules of do's and don'ts that covers the infant years, the toddler years, the young child years, the teenage years. Give me a list of do's and don'ts and I'll do them," and assume that the outcome will be correct. The underlying thought being that, "If I keep this checklist, I've done my duty and so just give me the duties so that I can do it." The problem there being that the parent perhaps without even realizing it is showing no real interest in the principles of the heart that are at parenting. If you're oriented toward a checklist in parenting, you're off track. I'll just be candid with you. You're not approaching it right at all...