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When I'm A Parent...

Tonight I spent a few lovely hours with some ladies from my church making hair bows for the girls at the orphanage in El Salvador. As women, we love to talk while we work and spent some time getting to know each other. The topics bounced from our husbands to our pasts to our families to having kids (or current kids) and so on. Ladies, I know you understand how topics can bounce quickly from subject to subject when we get together! Needless to say, we covered a lot of material in those short couple of hours.

On the way home, I was thinking over all that was said, especially the parts about having/raising kids, and I was struck by a couple of thoughts. First of all, how do you raise godly children? That question led me to "what are the most important things to teach your children?" I obviously don't have the answer but I did think of two very important things I have learned that I want to instill in my children from a young age. And I also hope I continue to live by this also!

#1 - God's standards are YOUR standards. Don't ever settle for less than what God would have for you and what God wants from you. This can be in dating relationships, friendships, career, marriage...really anything. Learn God's standards and then live by them. Don't ever lower your standards because you are God's child and He knows what is best for you...He won't let you settle for second best.

#2 - Your identity is in Christ and NOTHING can ever take that away from you. Identity is not found in a parent, spouse, significant other, or child. I know I have touched on this before but, nothing can change your identity besides Christ.

I think that both of these ideas focus in my mind mostly on dating relationships. Probably because that's where I struggled the most as a young adult. I feel like I knew these two principles but I never applied them to my life. I wish I would have, although I know that my struggles have made be a stronger, better person.

So parents and future parents (including myself), please teach your children to never settle for less than God's standards - especially in dating and marriage relationships. Sit down with them, read through the parts of the Bible that describe a Godly wife/husband...write those things down and then encourage them to never give up until they find someone who can meet those standards. Remind them that their identity and who they are is only in Christ. They cannot "find themselves" on some remote island or through a relationship or a career. They can only be "found" through God's love and grace. And I hope in 5, 10, 15 years (whenever that day comes!) that I will sit my own children down and teach them these things. And I hope they listen, because that's half the battle! I'm pretty sure I had knew these things, just had to learn them the hard way! :)

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