Me:  You are with some nice folks!

Prodigal:  Yep, I haven’t seen y’all in a coon’s age.

Me:  I was going to speak about children today.

 

This comes from the book Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

 

The Scriptures advise parents to “train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” Proverbs 22:6.  Many parents misunderstand this passage.  They think “the way he should go” means “the way we, the parents think he or she should go.”  Can you see the boundary conflicts already beginning?

The verse actually means “the way God has planned for him or her to go.”  In other words, good parenting isn’t emotionally bludgeoning the child into come clone or ideal of the perfect child.  It’s being a partner in helping young ones discover what God intended for them to be and helping them reach that goal.

 

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just let your child be a child and for us not to interfere.

 

Matthew 28:20

I am with you always to the end of the age.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org