RULES WITHOUT RELATIONSHIPS BREED RESENTMENT!

​“Rules Without Relationship Breed Resentment and Rebellion.”

Using the word relationship, here is an acrostic of ideas to help prevent resentment and rebellion in your child’s heart.

R—Read God’s Word together!  Study the Bible as a family unit.

E—Enjoy special times together!  Occasions like birthdays, Sunday dinner, holiday's and spiritual birthdays are times that will build relationships or destroy such. Plan times to be together and work diligently to develop loving relationships during those events  Often we make these events BIG but the pressure that comes with that may only add pressure. Keep them simple understanding that the simple things of life are life changing.

L—Lighten-up together!  Laugh and have fun together, decide to enjoy each other.

A—Always, be consistent together!  Hypocrisy will cripple your relationship with your children.

T—Treasure each moment of life together! Remember, our children are a gift from the Lord.

I—Initiate time together! Your child may not act like it, but your child craves it and needs it. Build it into your day and make it a priority. Set times to  spend one-on-one time with your children alone. These times will never be regretted!

O—Open yourselves up together! Be willing to talk about anything, ask questions and talk through difficulties. Work to understand each other. Remember honesty is a must!

N—No must be said together!  Sometimes you just need to say “no.” You need to be the bad guy every now and then. Sorry, that is part of parenting.

S—Support the authorities together!  As parents we need to support our authorities and in so doing we need to teach our children to do the same.  Employers, policemen, teachers, pastors, etc.

H—Honor together!  Honoring our spouses, our parents and our children will lead our children to do the same. Being kind and respectful to each other is so important.

I—Improve ourselves together! We must continue to improve in our parenting skills. We must continue to improve in communication skills and in most importantly in our ability to relate with Jesus. As we do it will help us to relate better with our children and give us more influence to impart within them the disciplines of the Lord! 

P—Pray together! Look for several times daily which you can pray together with your children.  Find times that work for you. In the morning, noon, or evening. It worked for Daniel and it will work for you!