Prodigal:  Look at the family of birds.

Me:  They are so pink!

Prodigal:  Yes, that is something different about them.

Me:  Lets share with parents because it is a tough job.

 

This is from the book Parents in Pain by John White.

 

We parents are imperfect.  We are imperfect not only in failing to do those things we can (which is blame-worthy) but in lacking some parental capacities entirely.  We can only give what we have.  We cannot give what we do not have.  So our children are bound to experience deprivation because they are born to imperfect parents in a fallen world.

Never pretend to your children that you are better than you are .  Let them know that you are a fellow struggler, one who may have known glorious victories but equally ignominious defeats…

I do not say you are to bare your soul to your children, or to reveal to them the horrors of every pit into which you have descended.  But where your conduct in the home has been blameworthy, be open about it.  They must not see in you a paragon of virtue but a redeemed sinner, one who goes on learning and who refuses to be discouraged by falls.  Give them someone to follow, not someone to worship.

 

Proverbs 13:24

He who withhold his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org