To Train Up A Child

Parenting well takes time and patience. Just as a plant won't grow taller when you tug on the stem, children aren't meant to be tugged impatiently into adulthood. Developing a secure bond of love requires a parent to become a student of all that makes this person unique.

No Greater Joy Magazine offers parents articles that are both instructional and an encouragement as they navigate the years of child training. Within its pages are helps to make the most of those moments when your influence can bring the greatest rewards. Browse through their online archives. Sign up today to receive your free, bi-monthly issue and begin the process of LOVING WHAT THEY LOVE .

Below is an excerpt from an article by Michael Pearl that appeared in No Greater Joy Magazine, September 2004. Follow the links to read the entire article.

"Many parents rush along, demanding clean rooms and finished homework, but take little pleasure in the simple things that delight a child. As we are steering them through the growing responsibilities of life, we must care more about the child’s joy in a thing more than about the thing itself. Many mothers take away a child’s joy of work and play through their need for a perfect product from the child. Many daddies suck the joy of family vacation time by demanding that the child swim correctly or water ski in the right way. When your goal becomes your need for a proper performance or product, then you have stopped loving the child and started loving your own ego. Our goal is not a perfect product; it is to instill in the child a love of learning, of doing, and the joy of creating something with his own hands.

A mother who stays busy maintaining a spotless house, but does not take the time to involve the children in her service, is doing them a disservice and is missing an opportunity to “grow” some love. A daddy who is busy working on his truck, but does not have the time to explain to his son what he is doing and provide an opportunity for him to participate in a meaningful way, is not fellowshipping with his son, is not teaching him to love anything or anyone, is giving him no pleasure, and he is not taking pleasure in his son. A mom who prepares evening meals, but does not daily take the time to encourage her little girl to stir the dough, is missing incredible opportunities to make love and creativity grow and bloom. A dad who is working on the computer finishing the construction of a family web site, but does not have time to sit his little ones on his lap and show them how to draw a face on the screen, has not yet mastered the wonderful thing called love.

~ Michael Pearl, Love is Loving What They Love.