Over 36 years of parenting our 8 kids, I tried to learn everything that I could in order to do my best as a mother.
I read lots and lots of parenting books, and I talked to godly women who had raised good kids, and were great moms. My goal was not to just be a mediocre mom, but a great mom.
Today I’d like to share four tips that helped me the most, and that will help you to be the great mom you want to be.
My Top 4 Parenting Tips For Being a Great Mom
1. Begin training and teaching them EARLY.
A child’s character is formed primarily in his early years, so it’s very important that we begin early to teach and train them in God’s Word.
“And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” II Timothy 3:15
The harder you work at teaching and training your kids when they are young, the easier the rest of your parenting years will be.
2. Give more love than discipline.
Some days you may feel like all you do is Discipline and correct the kids all day long. It can be frustrating, as well as exhausting. That in turn can lead to irritation. The danger is that our discipline is no longer given in love.
I have found that the more a child needs to be corrected and disciplined, the more love I need to intentionally show him. This doesn’t mean skipping the discipline. It means purposefully showing that child that I love him by spending extra time with him, playing with him, reading to him, etc.
Keep in mind that your goal of discipline is not to change behavior, but to change the heart. When you keep that focus, it will help you discipline in love.
3. Train them to be obedient.
God gave us the position of authority over our kids, and it is our responsibility to faithfully exercise that authority. When we don’t require our children to obey, we aren’t being good stewards of the children he has entrusted to our care. We are in essence, disobeying God.
Teaching our children to be obedient to us, is teaching them to be obedient to God. He is the one who gives the command in His Word that children obey their parents. We need to teach our kids first time obedience, so they will listen and obey God the first time He speaks to their hearts.
4. Focus on their character.
We have a character crisis in our society today. You don’t have to look very far or very hard to see that. As Christian parents, we need to catch a vision for raising a generation of young people with good, strong Christian character! It’s not the job of the church, or the Christian school. It’s up to US! We are the best ones to teach them character, because we love them more than any one else will, and we know them better.
I get excited when I think about the opportunity we have as Christian parents to make a difference in society, by raising our kids to love God, and grow to be like Him. This won’t just happen though, unless we put it high on our priority list, and have a plan for how we will help them develop and grow in their character.
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