Parenting Evaluation
When I was at work today, I had a convesation with a young woman I work with. She was telling me about someone she knows who professes to be a Christian, allways talks about God and salvation to her, but she says she blocks it out because the woman is a hypocrit.
The woman who witnesses to her doesn’t let her kids paticipate in Halloween, or St Patricks Day, with the reasoning that celebrating Halloween is celebrating a satanic holiday, and celebrating St Patricks Day is celebrating Leprechauns, which she says are also evil.
She does however, allow her kids to watch horror movies, such as Friday the Thirteenth, and the Saw movies (I have no idea what those are), and Nightmare on Elm St.
The young woman doesn’t understand the double standard.
How can you not allow your kids to celebrate Halloween, but they can watch movies that are full of murder, horror, and other evil things?
I got to thinking about it, and I know that I have been guilty of similar double standards over the years.
I think this conversation was good for me because it made me evaluate my own parenting rules, and what I allow, and what I don’t or haven’t.
As I have gotten older, I have noticed that I don’t make decisions based on fear as much as I did when I was younger, and I also am more likely to evaluate my reasons for certain rules, rather than make rules because everyone else thinks I should.
I want to be a good witness to my faith.
I want people to look at my life and see that I live what I say I believe, even in my parenting.
I know I have made mistakes, and I will make more before my kids are all grown up.
But I am doing the best I know how to do, and I did the best I knew how to when my older kids were younger.
Life goes on, and God has a way of making everything work out for our good, even when we make mistakes.
Thank God for that!
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