Tag: pathways

Posted on by

Parenting Moment: Why Do You Parent the Way You Do?

pathway

Why do you parent the way you do?

We tend to default to what we know. It’s easy to fall into bad habits without realizing it. We tend to act like we saw our parents act–both the good and the bad. And the way we parent will become our children’s default one day.

Even if we were blessed with a godly heritage, our parents were still fallible human beings. They were also different than us, and parenting different children in a different time. We’d be wise to pause and look at our parenting decisions in light of God’s Word.

I was recently listening to a talk on teens and trauma, and the speaker (Tera Melber) pointed out that are brains literally rewire themselves as teenagers, letting go of pathways that aren’t used often. She explained that teens need to practice the things they want to keep, thereby creating firm pathways. She also brought us back to Romans 12:2 and how God wants to renew our minds.

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2 (ESV)

God wants us to let go of bad pathways and form new ones. This process continues our whole lives! It made me stop and think about the pathways I’ve formed as a parent, and if they’re really the pathways I want to continue, or if I need some rewiring.

Forging a new pathway takes patience and consistency. It’s easy to just do what we’ve always done. But it’s worth the extra effort to follow Christ and His way more and more in how we parent our children. We can run to the cross, thankful for forgiveness for the past and power to move forward on a different pathway.

Posted on by

Short Story: New Pathways

“Why are you heading down this path?”

It was a good question. To be honest, Will wasn’t quite sure. The path was well worn–one he’d traveled often whenever he wanted to head down to the river for a swim. But he’d never really stopped to think about why he’d chosen it.

“It’s just the path I take to the river,” he mumbled.

“That doesn’t make it the best path,” Joshua pointed out. “There’s all kinds of dangers on this path: snakes, poisonous plants–I could go on. There’s a much better way to get to the river.”

Joshua pointed as he spoke to a barely visible path in the distance.

“But that path is hardly a path!” Will objected.

“That’s just because you haven’t traveled it much,” Joshua replied. “Make yourself travel it every day instead of this one, and it will become a solid path over time too. Come on, Will. New pathways might be hard to forge at first, but it will be worth it in the end to take the better route.”