Don't be afraid to be a mother!

The scriptures tell  us to  ' train up our child in the way he should go  and when he is old  he  will  not depart from it.  (Proverbs 22:6)  But how many of us are afraid or unwilling to train our children? We are  afraid that we will lose our children's affections if we restrain them- we are afraid to  be mothers!

Some of us don't train our children because we are too lazy- it is always easier to just let them go-  it takes  too  much  effort to harness them and  direct them in the right direction.  Some of us do a half-hearted training of our children-  because they bug us,  we make them toe the line!  I suppose that is better than no training at all.

What are the consequences of us not training our children? At the very most rebellious young adults who have no respect for authority- yours or anyone else's. At the very least, young adults who cannot restrain themselves or their moods and who have no respect for property or other people's feelings. Definitely on both counts, we will have bred unhappy young adults.

A lot of mothers are so afraid of harming their children's psyche that they become the child's servant eventually, doting on them and spoiling them until they are insufferable to bear. Mothers, you cannot be your child's best buddy or friend. You have to train your child well and be a mother who is not afraid to enforce her God-given authority as Mother. Your children will respect you for it- they certainly won't respect you for trying to be their friend.

If we don't train our children well we are asking for rottenness to come into their character. A mother who trains and disciplines her children in a loving way will never lose her children's respect or love. Even from early childhood we intuitively know that Mother is our teacher and protector. We may not verbalise it as children but we all know we need a Mother's input in our formative years. However we train our children we can be assured that the results will reach into eternity.

© Glenys Robyn Hicks

'Train up our child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6