First, the Bible: “Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Haven’t you heard a parent say that, trying to motivate their child to obey? More often than not, it does not seem to work. The parent has to start over again. When parents treat their children like their commands mean nothing, the child is going to treat the command as if it means nothing. Sometimes even, the parent can’t get the child to do anything until the parent loses his or her temper. Not only has the parent then sinned, but now they have fallen into a very dangerous pattern of behavior in which the parent is being manipulated by the child.
When God commands, He expects obedience. God told Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice and Abraham obeyed immediately (Gen. 22:1-2). God told Peter to go to Cornelius’s house and he obeyed immediately (Acts 10). God told Philip to go study with the Ethiopian treasurer and he obeyed immediately (Acts 8:26ff).
We don’t always have to explain why we want our children to obey us. I’m not suggesting we never explain our reason. But children have to be trained to obey. When we tried to put this principle into practice with our girls, I would give them a timeframe: “In ten minutes, we need you at the dining room table for dinner.” If they weren’t there in ten minutes, I would turn off or shut down or whatever it was they were doing that had delayed their obedience. I did not count down (5…4…), I gave them a point when I expected action to take place. It also gave them an opportunity to complete whatever it was they were working on.
Don’t make yourself sound like a broken record. You embarrass yourself that way. Give your children your expectations and then expect them to fulfill them. If they have to go to bed earlier in order to get up earlier, make it so.
Paul Holland
