If you’re a parent, you want your children to turn out well, and the best way to do that is by modelling proper behaviour at home (see Ephesians 5:1 MSG). Learn to say no. Susan Alexander Yates says: ‘There are simply too many demands…choices, and too little time. Maturity means learning to postpone something you’d really like to do now…to focus on something even more important. Maybe it’s that career opportunity so you can have more time with your children, or that outing with your friends so you’re around when your teens have their friends at your house. Maybe you need to say “no” to your kids being in yet another sports team so your family can have dinner together. Ask yourself, in 10 years, what will matter most – that you signed your child up for yet another activity and spent evenings apart, or said “no” and had family dinners together? Or that you participated in…another committee, or said “no” so you could spend more time with your husband? Pursue Christ with fresh vigour…I pray King David’s prayer: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:12 NIV). Resolve to recapture that joy. Vary…your time alone with God. Decide on a new topic for Bible study. Begin a fresh journal…If you…still feel stale, ask God to show you the reason. Is there sin in your life you’re ignoring? A wrong relationship, self-pity, jealousy?’ The Bible says, ‘Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus’ (Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV). Always be aware that the kids are watching you.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.