A recent pic-nic at the park.
Today I am featuring the last five tips for following God's parenting example from Richard and Linda Eyre. Enjoy! If you'd like to read tips 1-5, check them out here.
6. God trusts His children.God trusts us mightily! And He entrusts us. He trusts us enough to send us into this dangerous mortality. He entrusts us with determining our own salvation and even with the stewardship of others of His spirit children.
Generally, our children are ready for more choices and challenges than we think they are. But they need to start getting this independence in thoughtful and organized ways, not by just giving them free reign to do whatever they want.
7. God is completely trustworthy.
He always does exactly what He says He will do and this allows us to trust Him and His word absolutely. And He makes covenants and pacts with us.
Likewise, we can strive to be totally trustworthy with our children. We can absolutely pledge ourselves to do what we say we will do, and not to say we will do anything that we may not be able to do. And we can make pacts with them about the commandments we will keep.
8. God gives us stewardships.Heavenly Father, who owns all in His universe, gives us stewardships. First of our agency, then of so much more, and He does it all within His Divine Economy which rewards us for what we do and assures us that we can someday own that which we learn to steward.
We can set up our own “family economies” where everyone has certain responsibilities (for the common areas of the house, for the dishes, etc.) and where kids keep track of their stewardships and have a “pay day” at the end of the week where how much they receive is based on how many of their responsibilities they emembered and got done. (for further detail on this type of a family economy, go to www.valuesparenting.com/familyeconomy)
9. God has a plan of happiness for His children.
One of the most marvelous and awesome things that we know about God is that He has a magnificent and comprehensive plan for the ultimate happiness of His children. We sometimes call it The Plan of Salvation
We should have plans and goals for our own families. We can brainstorm as couples (or if you are a single parent, with one of your parents) about what your goals are for your children and how you think you can better facilitate their long term happiness. We can create family mission statements and slogans and mottos that guide us.
10. God gives us written advice and assurance.Heavenly Father knows and values the written word, as do His Prophets. Lehi sen his boys back, at the peril of their lives, to get written records. The full word of our Heavenly Father is written in His scriptures. Language and writing lends clarity and permanence to the laws and wisdom of God.
We can also work on better use of the written word by doing special Mother's day or Father’s day notes to our children, by keeping a journal to record our testimonies for our kids and their posterity, and perhaps with a birthday advice letter each year.
At first, the thought of emulating the parenting of God sounds intimidating and impossible, but with detailed reflection, there are at least 10 things we can apply at our own parenting level. Good luck to us all in the most Godlike pursuit and stewardship of this earth!
Thanks so much to the Eyre's for sharing these great pieces of advice.
