Parents

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.  – Ephesians 6.4

I called this reflection 'Parents' even though the verse says 'fathers' because the notion of raising children is a joint one between mom and dad. Even though the primary responsibility is to the dad, it is a partnership.

So, with the knowledge that this is addressed to dads, but applicable to both, lets see that we have.

There is a don't and there is a do.

Say, that reminds me of  Mr. Do-bee and Mr. Don't-bee from Romper Room.

Don't be provoking you children to wrath

Do be bringing them up in the nuture and admonition of the Lord.

I am a dad. It is an awesome role. I am a grampy - it is even an awesomer role.

But with that awesomeness comes responsibility. We are responsible to make sure our children, and to some extent our grandchildren, are properly trained and properly instructed in the ways of the Lord.

But while we do that there is a way it is supposed to be done - we must be careful not to provoke them as as we train them.

Now that’s hard sometimes. Children can be terribly frustrating at times no matter how much we love them. It is easy for us to get provoked and then provoke them in response.

But we are supposed to be the adults here.

Sure we are supposed to raise our children in the ways of the Lord. We saw yesterday that they need to obey and that we need to teach them to obey.

But we need to be doubly sure that we don't provoke them with our attitudes or our hypocrisy or our pride or our selfishness.

Its a two way street - they have to obey, but we are not to be tyrants.

That's what submitting to each other is all about.