PARENTING, OVERVIEW      Part I
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We understand that to mean, a Spiritual rebirth in the original likeness of our Heavenly Father, as He meant it to be. Having a new relationship with God, it is a given that we desire to change how we think; no longer mainly "self".( Ephesians 5:8,9,&10). So, as a Christian Parent, we must develop objective thinking out of and through our Spirit; the Spirit is love, truthfulness, righteousness...all that is good. Maybe an example might help explain. Let's say that when you were growing up, you wanting to play the piano. You loved the piano, but your parents couldn't afford a piano, not even lessons. Now you are a Christian Father  and you believe you are to provide the best you can for your Family. All your children have one year of piano lessons. Your son seems okay about taking the lessons,complains about practice but does it and does average at his recital. Your daughter fights going for lessons and struggles with practice, and the teacher, when pressed (although she recommends all children have a minimum of 3 years of lessons before either deciding to stop or go on) states your daughter is struggling and getting very frustrated because she can't seem to get it. What are you going to do? Let's understand that your intentions were good  and at the same time those intentions came from "self". Now one could rationalize that all educated people should know how to play the piano. As you can see, rationalizing justifies what the "self " thinks, plus it sounds good. Godly objective thinking would be stating, ---"every child is born liking music; I need to expose my children to music appreciation and a basic understanding of all instruments. If any of my children seems to have an interest and /or ability in one area I will do what I can to support that interest." ( What this doesn't mean, is to go out and buy an expensive piano which you can't afford. I will be discussing  what we teach our children about financial responsibility in another lesson).

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