Parenting: God"s Plans or Our Plans?

Hear, O Israel: [b]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.(Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

 Parents . . .Dads especially, we need to be constantly speaking about, representing, focused upon and demanding accountability to the Lord! Morning, noon, night and in between, we are to be in communication with the Lord and being sure our kids hear and see it! It is our responsibility from God! It is not the youth pastor, bible teacher, Sunday school teacher, or senior Pastor's responsibility. They can only enhance what is taught and modelled at home.

Dreams and plans are good, but only if they're based upon Godly wisdom. (Ecclesiastes 5: 7) We as parents spend  countless hours planning and preparing our children for their futures. Many times they are our short-circuited plans that we want them to acccomplish. Other times they are plans to be financially successful.

But . . . are our plans God's plans for our children?

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.(Proverbs 22:6)

Be sure our plans are God's plans, especially for our children. First teach and model the things of God. Then seek God's design for them as you explore their physical and spiritual gifts. Then seek God's wisdom as to future plans of education, training, relationships, and placement as to a  career God has for them.

You see, we are merely stewards of our children. They are lent to us. They belong to God to live out His dreams, not ours!