Hello dear friends & fellow parents, I pray that Holy Spirit will come through and make sense out of my jumbled thoughts.

I sense a battle like no other when it comes time to write for this parenting column. No wonder, right? Our children are the enemy’s favorite target.

When I process "parenting" as the subject that I am to write about today, my mind goes all kinds of places. Being a parent to children of all ages, from toddlers to young adults who are married with children of their own, I found my mind running in every direction, from pregnancy and newborn stage, to teenagers, to weddings, to grandbabies! So I finally said "okay Lord what's on your heart? What would you like me to write about today?" And as I sought after His vision & heart, one word that my mind settled on every time, is the word rebellion. It's a hard word, a word I don't like. But as I process and wonder, why Lord?! What about rebellion are you asking me to write about today?" My mind is drawn to the world that we live in today.

Society and what's the norm now, and how it compares to the Word of God which is our only source of truth. And sure enough, as we well know, the world we live in is in direct rebellion to the word of God (Jesus), and His Papa's heart. So how do we parent in this day and age? How do we keep our children's hearts so they don't turn to the world's rebellious ways which lead to hell? The key word that Holy Spirit gives me is in 1 Peter 3:7, where Peter gives the admonition to "Live with them according knowledge".

While this verse is specifically talking about husbands and wives, it absolutely applies to our relationships with our children too. When we have a good knowledge, or understanding of how our children think and feel, suddenly we have tools in our hands to know how to navigate the rough waters when rebellion rises up in their hearts! While our natural tendency is to want to manipulate or control in order to get obedience or good behavior, those tools are not God's tools but belong in the hands of the devil only, not in the hands of godly parents! Control will drive them away and make a bigger disconnect, and manipulation will only feed the rebellion. It is a compromise to the flesh. What we really want is obedience, and hearts that are turned toward us as parents, so we can instruct them in the ways they should go.

What we need as parents is true authority that can stand on truth with perfect love that casts out fear. So the question I leave you with, is this, "Do you have a good and godly understanding of what causes children to rebel?" Do you simply write it off as the devil, or as their flesh? Or do you have a desire to "live with your children according to knowledge"? My prayer is that Holy Spirit will stir up in us a deep desire to know and understand our children's hearts how they think, so we can live with them according to knowledge. Search your Heart, what do you really think about this subject?

Next time we chat here in the Parenting Column, we will dig a little deeper into some of the wells of knowledge and understanding that Papa has given my husband and me as parents, over the past twenty-five years in our search for truth and wisdom to train our children. Meet us here again in November, and we will look forward to helping you become equipped with more godly tools to wield on the battlefield! We love you, and we bless you on this challenging journey of parenthood! It's the hardest job you will ever love! And the most rewarding one, both here, and in eternal values!​