“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4, KJV)

Do you have good fellowship with your children? In the book of Ephesians chapter six verse four we are told not to provoke our children to wrath. How do can we do that? By not taking time to listen to them and communicate with them. When we take lightly our obligation to nurture and admonish our children, we lose their heart, and they begin to look elsewhere for the love and affection they so desperately need. That love and affection may end up coming from a group of people we would rather not relate to. That is why it is so important to do all that we can to nurture our children and take seriously their cries for help and their need to feel loved and accepted.

To nurture means to care for and encourage the growth or development of. My husband brought up a good point the other day when he said that a child that spends quality time with their parent is more likely to open up to them about important subjects. How can our children value our opinion if we never take the time to invest in the activities that they enjoy? Maintaining good fellowship between our children secures their heart in knowing that we care about them as individuals. A child can see right through our motives and false efforts to show love. They know well when we are rushing our time with them to do ‘more important things’. Dear parent, our time with our children is so short, let us not take for granted the opportunities we have now to develop a good relationship and show them how much we care. 

In our household we try to spend quality time with each child. We write down ideas for the things that they would like to do with us and when that time comes, we give them our undivided attention and affection. We end our time together by praying a blessing to them. Outside of purposeful times like these we do our best to remain sensitive to their needs and emotions, by giving them a voice in the family and hearing them out. 

All any child wants is to know that they are loved and cared for, that they belong. Let us make every effort to put aside meaningless tasks to address the more important issues that come up with our children. I pray the Holy Spirit will guide us all and cause us to be sensitive to our children’s needs and meet them on a level that they can appreciate.