8/8/15: Listen, Learn, and Pass It On
One of the funniest things about parenting happens when you find yourself talking to your child and you suddenly realize you are sounding just like your own mother or father. When did we become our parents? When we had kids of our own. Little by little, we discovered the wisdom of what seemed so incredibly crazy when our parents spoke the same words to us.
“Don’t turn that heat up. Just put on a sweater.” Now I realize Daddy was trying to save on that gas bill.
“You will sit there until you eat those vegetables.” Now I see that Mom knew what was best for my health.
“This hurts me more than it hurts you.” Now I know the pain of disappointment a parent experiences when our children ignore our counsel chasing foolishness they believe is astuteness. It hurts just as much to have to discipline them as it does to have to watch them experience the consequences of their poor choices.
With that said, one of the most gratifying things about parenting happens when our children become adults and we have the opportunity to see them repeat some of the good things we’ve done or said. We set our feet upon the Rock which is Jesus, trusted Him in our parenting, and now we experience the fruit of that labor as our children carry on in that same vein. Proverbs 22:17-21 states:
Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge;for it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; let them all be fixed upon your lips,so that your trust may be in the Lord; I have instructed you today, even you.Have I not written to you excellent things of counsels and knowledge,that I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, that you may answer words of truth to those who send to you? (NKJ)
Yes, we are to listen to God’s wisdom, count it as pleasant, and let it be fixed upon our lips. As we consistently learn and live by God’s counsels and knowledge, He will allow us to “know the certainty of the words of truth.” We will then know how to “answer words of truth (pass it on) to those” who He puts in our path. And low and behold, our children are the first recipients of the wisdom we have to pass on.
Be encouraged, parents. God’s wisdom will not come back empty. Keep listening to God, learning from Him, and passing it on.
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