I am not a perfect parent. There, I said it. It is all out in the open. I fail, I sin, I repent, I try again. However, imperfect as I may be, I believe I am a better parent today than I was ten years ago and, Lord willing, I will be a better parent next year than I am right now.
What about you? How is your parenting? This may be a good parenting week or one that you wish you could do all over again, but regardless of where you are in your parenting, I want you to know that you can improve. You may not be a great parent today, but you can be a better parent tomorrow.
Don’t give up, and don’t wait. Here are some practical steps you can take to become a better parent right away and to begin the process of improving a little bit each week.
- Love on your kids. I know that this sounds a bit ridiculous to say, but we can become so busy that we just neglect to love on our kids. Take time away from the yard work and laundry to hug your kids, give high fives, and notice their accomplishments.
- Be consistent. Do what you say and say what you plan to do. If you make a promise, follow through. If you warn about punishment, follow through. Kids like consistency and predictability. If you threaten discipline, but never follow through they learn that you are untrustworthy. The same goes for positive things. If you are constantly promising to do something special tomorrow, and tomorrow never seems to come, your kids will doubt your commitment to them.
- Play. Just like you need to love on your kids, you need to play with your Kids. The toilets may be dirty, but you can spare 10 minutes to throw a football or have a tea party. It’s OK if you have to play ball in slacks and wingtips, they just want to see you have fun with them.
- Provide boundaries. If you don’t have consistent rules in your house, create some today, make sure that they are well known, and live by them. We don’t have tons of rules, but the rules we have are non-negotiable. Rules become fences that make life safe and predictable. The boundaries will shift a bit as the kids age, but boundaries still have to exist.
- Love your spouse. When you love your spouse well, you take the most important step to create a stable home for your kids.
- Pray for your kids. Knock on the door of heaven and beg God to save them, to protect them, and to give them a heart for him.
- Pray with your kids. Pray at bedtime, mealtime, and devotion times. Pray in the car on the way to school and when you leave for family vacation. I knew a family once that always prayed together in the car when they passed an ambulance or firetruck because they knew that emergency workers were headed to someone who was in need.
- Read the Bible to your kids. Don’t worry about your pronunciations or your reading ability. You don’t have to do the entire book of Revelation tonight. Read Jonah or a psalm.
You can become a better parent. So what if last week was bad or last month, or if you can’t even remember a time when you felt like you were succeeding as a parent. Yes, you should have been reading the Bible to and praying with your kids for the last six months. But, the best time to start is now. Don’t let the failings of the past dictate your future.
Your kids need you and God has given them to you to raise.Run to God’s word for direction on raising your kids and run to God’s church for a community that can help you raise your kids.
Get over your past and get busy building a future for your family and for you.
