SPOKEN WORDS IN ACTION - PART 4

THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER 2023

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. Responsibly, all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training our children in righteousness, so that they may be thoroughly equipped for every good work and excellent life. But we must understand that mean, harsh, intimidating and abusive words are not useful for teaching, rebuking in love, or correcting and training our children in righteousness; they are only experienced in a way that limit a child, which is often harmful and self-defeating.

Reference: Hebrews 11:20 New International Version (NIV) "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future."

We can notice that Isaac blessed his children, and did not aim to intimidate them with worthless words. I acknowledged this truth for a reason, because it happens in some relationships between parents and their children. Let us be reminded that 2 Timothy 1:7 reads, "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline" (NIV). This implies that while building our children's lives, we should not raise them to be timid, but rather, empower them with the right knowledge, raise them in love and teach them the practice of self-discipline.

What does it mean to make your children timid? Some parents have a bullying voice that tends to be harsh and intimidating towards the very wellbeing of their children. And this sense of expression is entirely different from disciplining them when they act stupid or do wrong. Therefore I pray that such parents feel an inner prompting today, urging them to change that bullying voice, by trying to find a suitable place within their mind realm where they can settle with their thoughts and observe the consequences of exerting such voice on their children and tame it, and then refrain from using it, as well as free themselves from engaging their children with such damaging effect.

Don't be deceived or beguiled to think that your children will fear and obey you when you train them with a bullying voice. With such a voice, you mainly want to control their lives and boss them around, thereby distorting their inner peace without ceasing. And it only reveals a self-centeredness in you, which will definitely lead them to be seemingly acquiescent in all their dealings with you, yet they will become aggressive over time.

More so, they will feel dejected and unloved, such that they get used to expressing their limitations and self-doubt, and God will be holding you accountable for that. Moreover, learn to recognize that a bullying voice does not represent any transforming truth in the Bible. Therefore, don't ever create an inner fear in your children through a scary voice and then spray the negative creativity on the background of your children's emotional life.

Be true and genuine to yourself, so you can establish the right beneficial contact with your children, which is far from bullying them. Remove the outer covering of your inner eyes, so you can perceive and understand the spiritual implication of what I'm sharing with you in this article, especially if you've been resistant to noticing such a voice while addressing your children. Remember that what you have failed to resolve within you is going to continue, meaning that your children will keep on experiencing your fearsome display or exhibition, until you acquire a momentous sense of change in that aspect of you.

Ephesians 4:29 (NIV) says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." An intimidating voice is also classified as an "unwholesome" talk. Avoid using it on your children, instead, offer them inspiring words that can build them up when they need it most, or according to the need and the occasion. That way your words will communicate divine blessing and grace to their innermost being and influence their lives positively, thereby keeping them in the forward and skyward trajectory. Stay tuned for part 5. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Deuteronomy 5:29; Proverbs 29:17; Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Ephesians 6:4.

Guided Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, your Spirit produces the strength in me to raise my children properly and not to provoke conversations that will keep them timid. Thank you Lord for helping me on the journey of making future thinking a way of life for my children, as they walk in your light. Grant them the wisdom to make better choices today and always, through godly instructions made available to them, as they continue to imagine new possibilities, thereby connecting those signals - in their present moment - to larger patterns of good success, waiting to happen in their future, in Jesus' Name, Amen!