PARENTS-TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN WITH LOVE

MOST would agree that the birth of a child can be one of life's most joyful events.  "When I first gazed at my newborn daughter, it was a wonderful feeling," says a mother named Aleah.  "I thought she was the most beautiful child I had ever seen."  Such a joyful occasion, though, can also create anxiety for parents.  "My concern,"  says Aleah's husband, "was whether I could properly prepare my daughter for the trials of life."  Many parents share such concerns and realize the need for training their children with love.  However, Christian parents who desire to give such loving  training face challenges.  What are some of them?

We are now living  in  deep in the last days of this system.  As foretold, a loveless attitude pervades society.  Even among family members, people display "no natural affection"  and have become unthankful, disloyal, . . .without self-control, fierce."  (2Timothy 3:1-5) Daily contact with people who display such traits can affect the way members of Christian families treat one another.  In addition, parents wrestle with their own inherited tendency to lose self-control, to say  things they do not mean, and to use poop judgment in other ways. -Romans 3:23; James 3:2, 8, 9.

Despite these challenges. parents can raise happy, spiritually healthy children.  How?  By following the Bible's advice:  "Let all your affairs take place with love."  (1 Corinthians 16:14)  Indeed, love is "a perfect bond of union."  (Colossians 3:14) Let  us examine three aspects of love described by the apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians and discuss some specific ways parents can put this quality to work as they train their children. -1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

Next time: The Need to Be Long Suffering

Watchtower, 2007