What your child deserves (2)

“Bring them…so I may bless them.”

Ge 48:9 NIV

Here are three more things your children deserve from you: (1) Forgive them, and be willing to ask for their forgiveness. By doing this you’re teaching them that: (a) We must all deal with the consequences of our actions. And that when we do, we grow. (b) Failing doesn’t make you a failure; it’s just part of learning and maturing. It comes with the turf. (c) We should be quick to extend to others the same grace that has so often been extended to us. (2) Separate the baggage. One man became anxious and depressed as his son approached his twelfth birthday. Shortly after the boy’s birthday party, the father was thumbing through a photo album from his own childhood. That’s when it dawned on him that he was twelve when his father abandoned the family and then killed himself. Watching his son approach the same age made him afraid because it reopened old wounds—unhealed ones. A caring counselor helped him regain his perspective and peace by helping him realize he was a very different man from his father, and he wasn’t about to abandon his family. (3) Bless them. “‘They are the sons God has given me here,’ Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, ‘Bring them to me so I may bless them’” (v. 9 NIV). The principles you live by and the blessings you enjoy are meant to be passed on to your children and grandchildren. Whether it’s expressing what’s in your heart, or sending a note or email to say you’re proud of them, bless your children at every possible opportunity.

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