Exasperation or training in the Lord?

Posted by Mike Thurman on Apr 18, 2011 in Daily Bread | 0 comments

Fathers, how are you raising your children? Do you exasperate and provoke them or do you bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord? Paul instructs children to honor their parents, and he also has some instructions for us fathers. Paul instructs fathers to bring up our children in the training and instruction of the Lord instead of exasperating them.

I think the busyness of today’s world pushes fathers toward exasperating and provoking. It is not what we would choose, but many of us come home at the end of the day exhausted and do what we said we would never do.

Exasperation can take the form of cruel, harsh, unjust, or inconsistent punishment. Although, most fathers do not cross the line into cruel or harsh punishment, we can push the limits in unjust or inconsistent punishment. We may even dabble in non-punishment at times, which is really just inconsistent punishment.

So, fathers, are you training and instructing your children in the Lord or exasperating them?

These instructions from Paul for fathers comes near the end of Ephesians in chapter 6, and I do not think it is a coincidence that it comes after some other instructions such as: