Here’s a quick message to my boys. My boys are 21 and 18 years old. I wish someone had given me this advice when I was their age. (Perhaps you need to hear it as well.)
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I’m curious. What type of relationship did you or do you have with your earthly father? I have asked this question dozens of times to different groups of men and women with surprising results.
She was referring to a comment I have made many times as a father. I have stated that the pinnacle of success for me would be to one day receive one of those sappy, mushy plaques that talks about what a great dad I am…from children that really mean the words. I guess in this modern age of social media, today I received my first plaque.
This is a blessing to watch. What are you going through that you would have never asked for, but have no choice but to endure? You can choose to embrace the unknown by trusting God, or you can become bitter and resist the great things He can do through suffering. I look forward to watching as God continues to develop Colt McCoy’s life.
Today my role very quickly switched from pastor to dad. I was in a meeting preparing for a potential new ministry our church is considering. We were talking future, big dreams, ministry, and new ways of helping people. I love thinking Kingdom-building strategy.
Most Christian parents want to encourage their children to mature spiritually, but they do not know how. I am not an expert at this and I am still learning, but my boys are incredible men of God and they sincerely seek after Christ into their young adult years. Here are some thoughts for producing children who desire to grow spiritually:
Taylor, one of my 18 year-old son Nate’s best friends, is going to Wheaton University this fall. I am excited that he will be an hour away from Nate who will be at Moody Bible College. I wrote a blog about their friendship a couple months ago. Read that post HERE. I had coffee this morning with Taylor, because he is leaving this weekend for an extended and unusual college orientation.
What an experience today! Nate, our 17-year-old son (soon to be 18), had a minor traffic ticket for failure to yield to a yellow light and had to appear in juvenile court. We went to court and paid the ticket several months ago. I posted a blog about the first experience. Read it HERE. Today we had to reappear to prove he had been to traffic school. After 3 hours of waiting (attorneys get to go first), they saw our case, which took no more than 2 minutes, and we were on our way.
My advice to parents is to surround your children with kids they can be encouraged by later in life. Pick your children’s friends, while you can, based on their parents. Look for people who share your values, share your discipline philosophy, and are heading their children in the same direction you want your children to go. Then get your children around those children as much as you can. Hopefully you will instill in your children the skills of picking the right kinds of friends wisely that will carry over into other periods of their life.
If I had to give one piece of advice to parents, especially dads, it would be that you live an honest life in front of your children. I have witnessed too many parents, dads especially, who try to impress their children with their skills or their strength