Adolescent parenting has become an almost impossible challenge for many Christian families, the feeling of helplessness in the formation of the person according to Christian mussels at this stage of life is invariably accompanied by these doubts that persist in tormenting the conscience of parents: Has the education we offer produced responsible and successful people?Does the way we grow up interfere with some level in children’s conversion?And when children raised in evangelical homes are stubbornly lost in a life of sin?Who’s to blame?
Jonah 2. 9 teaches us that salvation is of the Lord. Yes, salvation is neither determined nor dependent on works, dignity or the human will, it is exploited exclusively by God!Some people tend to think that this statement removes the responsibility or love of parents in their children’s education, when, by chance, they are absent from the context of the local church. The first temptation is to think that “investment”?In this sense, we must trust the scriptures as our brethren have done well in the past.
- Saving is not a human prerogative.
- But wishing for the salvation of those you love is quite consistent and expected of every Christian.
- Parents assume responsibility for educating their children in terms of the Word of God.
- As we read in Deuteronomy 6.
- 6-7.
- That these words should be kept in their hearts and taught to children when they are sitting at home.
- Walking along the way.
- When they get up and lie down?The authentic Christian faith affirms what God does sovereignly.
- While confirming in the depths of the human heart its fragility.
- Therefore trusting in divine mercy and persevering.
- Loving and sustaining children.
- Is the most comforting way to keep alive the hope that our children will be convinced by the Holy Spirit of justice.
- Judgment and sin.
- Even if nothing seems to go as planned.
Parents make mistakes when they confuse discipline with excessive authoritarianism. Discipline is not just about adjusting deviant behaviors and behaviors, but a vigorously educational and loving routine. The best meaning of this word, in biblical terms, is constancy and not whipping or coertion. Perhaps by the absence of this perspective, many are only able to lead the discipline during early and second childhood, stages of development in which children are totally dependent and unable to comment on what they want and/or expect from life.
It may be, at this stage, that parents abandon their children and lose them, for in addition to forgetting that their own merits do not guarantee the salvation of the child, but divine grace, they also neglect apostolic instruction when they do not realize it. . and correspond significantly to the transformations that are taking place in children’s lives.
It is necessary to be aware of how children feel irritation, as it manifests itself not only in outbreaks of anger and anger, but in a multifaceted way, sometimes causing serious damage to physical and emotional health, such as suicidal thoughts, depression, chronic anxiety, learning problems, self-harm, drug use and others. These phenomena, which we see grow exponentially every year, according to statistics from health agencies. When the bond is broken, the most precious thing is lost: the relationship!
The result of this discord is that parents and children do not perceive the image of God reflected in the other, which depersonalizes them; parents see their children as testosterone/estrogen bombs or as rebellious and uncontrollable creatures; this distortion may be the first step towards the disaster of loss; the consequences are immeasurable and will certainly produce anguish and despair. Children, in turn, perceive their parents as monsters, whose only task is to tolerate their freedom. The sense of respect is broken and the consequence is anger, manifested by resentment and ingratitude.
Christian parents can never give up the task of educating their children in the Lord!We must have the courage not to perpetuate mistakes made with us by using them as justifications for reproducing them in our children’s lives. We must abandon the idea that the transformations of the adolescent body, its meanings, its changes and its reactions, can be explained simply by accepting that adolescence is the phase of rebellion. Like Jesus, should we love them [our children] to the end?(Jn 13:1).
May Christ, in his infinite mercy, renew family relations in Christian homes and help parents perceive their children, especially in adolescence, as a legacy of the Lord, as Psalm 127,3 reads in bed.