For many parents, it’s not the sleepless nights, the busy schedules, or even the toddler tantrums. It’s watching our children make choices we know will hurt them.
We see the warning signs. We see where the road leads. We want to protect them from pain, disappointment, failure, and regret. And sometimes we can.
But sometimes helping can actually make things worse. How do we know the difference?
When should parents step in? When should they step back? And could our attempts to rescue our children actually prevent God from doing something important in their lives?
In today’s reading from Proverbs, we’re reminded of a painful reality every parent eventually faces. Foolish choices bring consequences. But those consequences may be one of the very tools God uses to bring wisdom, maturity, and even repentance.
The challenge is knowing when to help—and when to get out of the way.
What if some of the goals Christian parents have pursued for generations need to be reconsidered?
Most parents want the same things for their children: a good education, a successful career, financial stability, and opportunities they may never have had themselves.
Those all sound like worthy goals.
But what if, in pursuing those goals, we unintentionally neglect something far more important?
Today, Christian parents face challenges that previous generations could hardly have imagined. The battle for our children’s hearts, minds, beliefs, and worldview is being fought on multiple fronts—and many young people are arriving at adulthood unprepared for what awaits them.
So what should our highest goal be as parents?
Should success, scholarships, prestigious universities, and career opportunities remain at the top of the list? Or does Scripture point us toward something else entirely?
Today’s reading raises some uncomfortable questions—and may challenge the way we think about Christian parenting, education, success, and what it really means to prepare the next generation.
Words have incredible power. Long after childhood is over, many men and women still carry wounds from things spoken to them years ago by parents, teachers, or others they trusted. As someone who counsels people regularly, I’ve seen how deeply careless, harsh, critical, or absent words can shape a person’s thinking and relationships for years to come.
Thankfully, God is gracious. He can redeem even painful experiences and help us find our identity in Christ rather than in the voices of our past. But how heartbreaking when children grow up needing to overcome our parenting rather than remembering it with gratitude.
As parents, we know correction is necessary. Love sometimes requires instruction, discipline, and rebuke. But is correction the primary thing our children hear from us? Do they regularly receive encouragement, affection, and words that build them up?
Childhood passes quickly. Before long, our children will be grown and looking back on the homes we created.
How will they remember you?
Will they know you loved them? More than that… will they believe you genuinely enjoyed them? Will they remember a parent who only corrected what was wrong—or one who also noticed, celebrated, encouraged, and delighted in what was right? One who genuinely liked them?
Have you ever found your thoughts drifting toward something you know isn’t right?
Maybe it seems small. Manageable. Easy to control.
But sin is never as harmless as it appears.
We often convince ourselves we can handle it—that we can entertain it without consequence. But sin has a way of quietly taking hold, pulling us further than we ever intended to go.
And it never affects just us.
What begins in the heart eventually spills over, impacting the people closest to us—often in ways we don’t immediately see.
In today’s passage, we’ll see what happens when sin is tolerated rather than confronted—through the effects of polygamy and a failure of both parental and spiritual leadership.
But that’s not the whole story.
In the middle of it all, we’ll also see the steady faithfulness of one godly woman—and the even greater faithfulness of God.
No parent sets out to sabotage their child’s future.
And yet… it can happen more easily than we think.
Sometimes, in our desire to love our children well, we try to give them everything they want. We smooth the path, remove obstacles, and shield them from discomfort. It feels right in the moment—after all, what parent doesn’t want their child to be happy?
But instead of producing lasting joy, this approach can quietly create something else: entitlement, frustration, and a growing expectation that life should always go their way. Over time, that can shape not only their character, but also their view of God—seeing Him less as a loving authority and more as someone who exists to meet their demands.
That raises some important questions:
How is your parenting shaping your child’s understanding of God?
Are you preparing them for the realities of marriage, work, and relationships?
And what lessons can we take from the life of Samson—a man of great potential who was undone by his thinking and self-focus?
When it comes to parenting, few of us are prepared for the hard work and confusion that accompanies the job. We get caught up in the excitement of the first sonogram, getting the nursery ready, and buying all those cute little bibs and blankets. It’s not until we’re sleep-deprived and walking the floor with a crying baby that we start to wonder, am I doing something wrong? But gradually, day by day, we muddle through, making the best parenting decisions we can.
And the challenges don’t go away after those first few months and years. So, it’s important to ask ourselves, what overall views and ideas inform and influence the way we parent? Could a different backstory make our parenting easier and more meaningful?
I talked to a young mom recently about Christian parenting. She is struggling with a strong-willed child and looking for some answers. When I began sharing biblical principles, she told me, it’s a different world today where parenting is concerned. What did she mean? Should parents today ignore parts of the Bible’s instructions on parenting? If not, how can we be obedient to Scripture and, yet, wise in the world in which we live?
God’s Word has so much to say about parenting. In fact, the Bible is full of God’s instructions, encouragement, and truth for His own children. Today, we’ll look at 7 ways we can grow and become the parents we want to be and 10 ways we can put God’s principles to work with our children.
We will also talk about “Delighting in the Lord” from Psalm 37 and look at Mary, the mother of Jesus. There is so much confusion about her. Does she intercede for believers? Just how should a Christian view her?
Easter and Holy Week are just around the corner. And our world has never needed to understand what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection more than it does now. But sadly, bunnies and Easter baskets often overshadow the immensity of what happened at the Cross two thousand plus years ago.
Helping the next generation understand the basics of the Christian faith and gain an understanding of sin, redemption, the gospel, and salvation is so important. While I don’t want to make light of the importance of good children and youth ministries, in some cases, children’s church or Sunday school has been reduced to Bible stories, a craft, and a snack. Children make professions of faith without a genuine understanding of their own sinfulness and the power of the gospel to save them.
Then they, too often, graduate into a youth ministry that is more concerned with pizza and entertainment than with growing young people into the image of Christ and preparing them for schools, universities, and the world in general, which are all designed to undermine any religious convictions they might have.
But studies have shown that the influence of parents can make a huge difference. So, we must find time to teach our children and help them develop their own faith and devotional habits. Why not take some time with your family to read about the events leading up to that first Easter Sunday? Perhaps today’s post can serve as a starting point.
What does it mean that God visits the iniquity or the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation? Are those children doomed spiritually? Are they bound to repeat their parents’ sins? Will they bear the guilt or the punishment for their parents’ wrongdoings?
Find out in today’s post. Also, why is it so important to read Scripture in light of other Scripture? And is it wise to co-sign someone else’s loan?
