Real Parents. Real Kids. Be Encouraged.

What does a real-life-spiritually-nurturing parent look like?

As I pondered the subject for this blog, I decided to do some investigation. Instead of reading books, looking at statistics and checking out parenting websites, I thought I’d ask real people in real families.

But NOT the parents.

I thought I’d asked the kids – but not little kids – kids that are now adults and have children of their own, kids that grew up in solid, Christian homes and are still living for the Lord. In fact, all these grown-up kids now work for Awana in some capacity. (Although I could list a lot of things my own parents did right I left them out of it and talked to others. I chose an equal number of men and women and also chose people from a wide age-span.)

What exactly did your parents do right?

They were anxious to tell me. Here are the answers I received.

1. My parents walked the talk. They lived out what they believed. I saw it both at home and at church.
2. My parents were consistent in discipline. If something was wrong one day, it was wrong the next day. Yes, there were consequences, but they dealt with it in love and in a manner that reinforced God’s love.
3. My parents loved me unconditionally. I never worried that I could be “so bad” (not that I was a bad kid ) that my parents didn’t love me.
4. My parents prayed for me and still do.
5. My parents made our family a priority. Maybe I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but they made sure we spent time together.
6. I knew our family was the most important thing my parents had going. They set the stage for my heart to be toward home as an adult.
7. My parents were in ministry, but they made sure to balance ministry life with home life. We kids felt as if we were part of the ministry.
8. We did fun family mystery trips. At the end of the trips the kids would say, “Thanks Mom,” and mom would say, “Thanks Dad” and Dad would say “Thanks Lord for our family.”
9. My parents would invite missionaries to our home so that my siblings and I could meet people who were serving the Lord in unique ways.
10. My parents were always ready to answer my questions. When I asked Dad a question, he would say, “Let’s see what God has to say about it” and get his Bible. When I wanted to date a non-Christian, he directed me to the Bible and guided me to come to the conclusion that it was wrong.
11. My parents regularly led us in family devotions.
12. My parents always encouraged us to memorize Scripture and made sure we were on track in our Awana books.
13. (This is a BIG one that almost all the “grown kids” mentioned.) My parent always made sure we were involved at church.
    *They worked their Sundays around church – Sunday mornings and evening services.
    *They were involved at church. They didn’t see it just as a place to go on Sundays, but important enough for them to put time in service.
    *They always made sure I was at church and when they saw the need for me to attend a private Christian school, they sacrificed to get me there.
    *They always made sure I was involved in the youth activities.
    *Church was integral to family life (though it didn’t supplant it). My dad has been an elder for years, my mom was involved in everything at least once. Yet, it didn’t take over the priority of our family.
    *They made sure I was at church for all the kid activities and encouraged the friendships I made at church so those friends became the key friendships in my life.

This list gives us a lot to think about, doesn’t it?

I hope the points these people listed are an encouragement to you because hopefully, these points confirm that you’re on the right track. Someday it may be your kids who reflect on how focused you were on spiritually mentoring them. They will be ones who proudly say (as these grown-up kids did) … this is what MY parents did right!