PARENTS-TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN WITH LOVE

Encourage Honest Communication

Another facet of love is that "it does not rejoice over  unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth."  (1 Corinthians 13:6)  How can parents train their children to love what is right and true?  A fundamental step is to encourage their children to express their feelings honestly, even if what the children say is difficult for the parents to accept.  Understandably, parents rejoice when children express thoughts and feelings in harmony with righteous standards.  At other times, though, a child's heartfelt comments may reveal an inclination toward unrighteousness.  (Genesis 8:21)  How should parents respond?  Their initial tendency might be to chastise their children immediately for expressing such thoughts.  If parents respond in such a way, the children might soon learn to say only what they think the parents want to hear.  Of course, disprespectful speech should be promptly  corrected, but there is a difference between teaching children how to communicate politely and dictating what they say.

How can parents encourage honest communication?  Aleah, mentioned earlier, says,  'We have created an atmosphere of open communication by trying not to overreact when our children tell us things that we find troubling."  A father named Tom says:  "We encourage our daughter to express herself to us, even when she didn't agree with our way of thinking.  We felt that if we always cut her off and arbitrarily imposed our will, she would become frustrated and would learn not to tell us what was really in her heart.  On the other hand, listening to her encouraged her to listen to us."  Certainly, children should obey their parents.  (Proverbs 6:20)  But open communication gives parents the opportunity to help their children develop reasoning ability.  Vincent, a father of four, says:   "Often, we would talk through the disadvantages and disadvantages of a situation so that our children could see for themselves the best outcome.  This helped them develop thinking ability." -Proverbs 1:1-4.

Next time:TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO LOVE JEHOVAH

Watchtower, 2007