Pastor's Corner
May, 2004
About this time every year, we will be reminded of our parents because we have Mother’s Day in May and Father’s Day in June. You know, being parents nowadays isn’t easy, especially for those who live in this high-strung, fast pace, and constantly changing Silicon Valley. New toys that came out only five years ago become obsolete today. Even the “Up-to-date” parents are having a difficult time catching up with what their children are talking or maybe “rapping” about.
Parenting is getting increasingly difficult. Our children are deeply influenced by what they watched on TV and listened to on radio. For example, the latest news report stated that alcohol commercials are frequently seen on TV programs that are most watched by youths. Though it is by law that alcohol commercial has to include “drink responsibly” statement, yet if we think it’s effective enough, we’re fooling ourselves. The amount of sexual content, violent behavior, and the foul languages used on TV and movie screens are so common nowadays that they permeate into our young children’s mind. Many young people are confused with the gay issue. Unfortunately, we can’t just say, “The Bible said that’s wrong” because there are so many churches and clergies who support this unbiblical movement.
Difficult as it is, if you believe children are God’s properties entrusted to us to raise, we need to do all diligence to accomplish the mission. There are no foolproof methods for parenting. Many Christian and secular books give good advices. They do provide helpful ideas, but you can’t copy what they suggested and hope they’d work. Every child is different. Therefore, we need to know our children, not only by their names. We need to know their personality. Proverbs teaches us to bring up our children according to their temperament. We also need to talk to them. Our problem is that we only talk to them when either they are in trouble or when we are displeased with them. We seldom casually talk to them about “silly” things. But those “silly talks” are the times you can develop a meaningful relationship. And rarely do we ask them what they think. Most of the conversations we have with our children are one directional. They deemed that as “lectures.” No wonder they don’t want to talk to us. Maybe we need to make some kind of change there. Knowing them and talking to them takes time! Unless we are willing to give up some of our times for them, we will always struggle with parenting.
My wife and I hold hands to pray for our children almost every day, and they know it. It’s good that they know you really care for them. One day, one of them said, “I appreciate my parents who pray for us every day.” Maybe this is something you can start doing. It’s never too late to pray. There is nothing more powerful than having both parents praying for their children. Whether your children can see it is beside the point. The point is, if you believe they are God’s properties entrusted to you, shouldn’t you entrust God to partner with you to raise them?
Pastor Larry
