Just a thought...
If you lay a good foundation during the first three years of your child's life do you have as much to do as the child grows older?
Kendra and I were talking about this subject one day. We concluded that this is the assumption by most young parents, especially those that have read any of the more popular parenting books.
We even had these thoughts floating around in our mind until our children began to grow up. As those children grow you find two different parenting types. The first is those who do their duty for the first three years and then basically step back to watch their work in action. But, sad to say, they find out quickly that if the foundation is not built upon it disintegrates and the foundation is no longer strong.
Then, there are the parents who realize that you must build on the foundation to keep it strong. They understand that the foundation is only the beginning of the process. There are the walls, headers, sheet rock, plaster, stucco and so much more that goes into the building be completed. And, then to top it off, the house must continually be maintained.
So, which parent are you?
4 comments:
Amen! Parenting is a job that is with us....well, I started to say until our children leave our homes, but that's not it either. Even though our job of training and discipling our children is more concentrated when they are still home, and whether they are 4 or 24, it still continues, though in a different mode, when our children start their own homes. Our adult children should still be able to count on us not only for Biblical counsel, but also to come alongside as their mentors.
The house analogy is a really good one. It makes complete sense; a house is just a foundation without all the other stuff!
Oh yes! Training goes on! :-)
Love, Amy :O)
The first three years are ever so important, as we see with our adopted children, who were all over three when they came to us. Yet, I do believe we can make up a lot of that lost training time with consistent parenting as they age.
As for our older boys (men), who got the first three years of training, I saw a great need in them between 12 and 18. It's been fun, although sometimes difficult, to work into the mentoring mode, as copper's wife described. To watch them learn the hard way - motorcycle accidents etc. - yet the foundation was built. We still had to build the walls and roof for true shelter.
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