what parents owe their children
unconditional love
jim says that parents owe their kids “unconditional love”.
interstingly, jesus teaches that every one of us ought to give this to every one we meet. i wonder if all of the points will be this sort of thing — something we ought to be teaching anyway?
parents, we have an obligation to love our children no matter what — because you are the parent, and they are the child, and this is something a parent owes a child.
encouragement
again, i believe this is something we all “owe” each other — though i am uncomfortable with this “owe” idea. we “owe” god, and because of what he’s done for us, and how his spirit works in us, we take that love that is borne in our hearts and it naturally flows out towards the people we are around — both friends and “enemies”, as jesus says.
a parent’s words of encourageing bring forth blessings in life
protection & provision
interesting. this might be parent-specific.
parents we owe it to our children to protect them.
i wonder, though, how much we are to protect our neighbor? are we to provide for our neighbor? _what else did “the good samaritan” do except protect and provide for the man who had been beaten and robbed?
1 tim 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
boundaries
every parent has an oblication to teach responsibility and respect, and to provide ontructive discipline.
now this one is very true. there is a strong biblical basis for this being parent-spcific.
proverbs is full of this stuff — both how men are to help each other and parents are to discipline their children.
parents are to provide dicipline, which are like “guardrails along the highway of life”
oh, goodie, now jim’s talking about “wifeswap”. nothing new here. the show is entertaining, and has lessons for life, and aren’t worth watching, because we all know it already.
parents you owe to your children to monitor their tv viewing, internet, cds, and such.
“give your children roots so they can grow wings.”
O_o
jim is making a very good point about teaching people to take responsibility for themselves — we simply can not do everything for everyone: we neither have the energy/time, and, we have an obligation to train them to train those who come after them.
which brings up a new point: where is “discipleship” in this whole sermon? isn’t the whole idea of teaching children well so that they can, not grow up and move out and have kids of their own, but rather so they can make disciples.
some jokes just aren’t funny
it always amazes me how some of jim’s “jokes” are things that make god sad, and yet everyone laughs.
godly example
hehe — the afterthought? (or is that too cynical?)
we need to teach our children how we treat our spouces
again, i keep finding circular reasoning here: “teach your children to do x well, so that they can do x well”, when jesus tells us, “teach your children to do x well, both because x is important to god, and so they can teach everyone around them to do x well.”
the hebrew word for “parent” and “teacher” is the same.
what does this mean for “god the father” ?
what does it mean for “rabbi” ?
is it the word used when the young man comes to jesus can calls him “good teacher” ?
18 kai ephrwthsen tiV auton arcwn legwn didaskale agaqe ti poihsaV zwhn aiwnion klhronomhsw 18:18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?