Should We Expect Rebellion From Our Kids?
As Christian parents, what should we expect from our kids?
According to a Christian radio talk show I heard, (I can’t remember who the host was), we should should expect that kids are going to rebel, that they will experiment with sex, drugs, and alcohol, and that they will try things they know and have been taught are wrong.
This made me so mad, I was hollering at the radio.
Now, I am not ignorant that we live in a real world where there are real problems, and real kids who rebel….
but I am also not ignorant of the fact that God is bigger than that. My Bible tells me (and I believe yours says this too….look in Proverbs 22:6), that if we train children up in the way they should go, they will not depart from it when they are older.
This does not mean they will never question us, and it doesn’t mean that some of them won’t need to learn things the hard way.
But it does mean we should NOT expect them to experiment and rebel, and learn things the hard way. We should expect them to do what they were brought up to know is right.
1 Cor. 13:7b
says love…”is ever ready to believe the best of every person” (Amp.).
If we truly believe the best, we will expect the best. If we expect the best, and our expectation is challenged, we are to still believe the best- and that is that they will come back.
I am not speaking as a parent who has not experienced any challenge to my expectations of my kids, but as one who has experienced seeing a child who was brought up to know the way to go, and has rebelled. I did not expect the rebellion, but I faced it and prayed through it with my husband. We let our child know that we were praying and fasting for him, and we expected him to line up with what he was brought up to know and live. Now we are seeing the fruit of the praying, fasting and expecting….but we are still praying, fasting and expecting all our kids to walk in the way they were brought up to know is right. We are not done yet.
As Christian parents, we have to take the Word of God to mean what it says, and we have to expect the best. It is our responsibility to expect our kids to do their best, be their best, and live their best….in the Lord.
So I will not expect my kids to rebel. I expect them to excell.
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