AUTHORITY-PARENTS
Flaunting
authority is always wrong. Talking about
this authority when there is no reason to be talking about it often leads to
abuse. The brandishing of authority for
its own sake shows that the parent fails to recognize that the authority is
given for the benefit of the child. Such
assertion of authority often leads to the establishment of foolish and overly
rigid rules. If “His
commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3), why should ours be?
Jay E. Adams
Christian Living in the Home, P&R
Publishing, 1972, p. 114, Used by Permission.
You can do
little for the welfare of your children once you have lost your authority over
them. Don't allow them by your lightness, weakness, and folly, to trample
upon you; but keep up so much authority that your word may be a law unto
them. Nevertheless, do not let your authority be strained with such
harshness and fierceness as may discourage your children. To treat our
children like slaves, and with such rigor that they shall always tremble and
abhor the idea of coming into our presence, is very unlike our heavenly Father.
Cotton Mather
A Well-Ordered Family, Soli Deo Gloria, 2001 (first printing 1699), p. 12.
As a parent
you must exercise authority. You must
require obedience of your children because they are called by God to obey and
honor you. You must exercise authority,
not as a cruel taskmaster, but as one who truly loves them.
Shepherding a Child’s Heart, Shepherd
Press, 1995, p. 14. Used by Permission.
As a parent
you have authority because God calls you to be an authority in your child’s
life. You have the authority to act on
behalf of God. As a father or mother,
you do not exercise rule over your jurisdiction, but over God’s. You act at His command. You discharge a duty that He has given. You may not try to shape the lives of your
children as pleases you, but as pleases Him.
Shepherding a Child’s Heart, Shepherd
Press, 1995, p. 46-47. Used by Permission.
Submission to
earthly authority is a specific application of being a creature under God’s
authority. Submission to God’s authority
may seem distant and theoretical. Mom
and Dad, however, are present. Obedience
to God is reflected in a child’s growing understanding of obedience to
parents. Acquaint your children with
authority and submission when they are infants.
This training starts the day you bring them home from the hospital.
Shepherding a Child’s Heart, Shepherd
Press, 1995, p. 156. Used by Permission.
One of the
hardest jobs for a parent is making a child realize that “no” is a complete
sentence.
Author Unknown
Leadership, v. 16, n. 2.
You will see many in this day who
allow their children to choose and think for themselves long before they are
able, and even make excuses for their disobedience, as if it were a thing not
to be blamed. To my eyes, a parent always yielding,
and a child always having its own way, are a most painful sight – painful,
because I see God’s appointed order of things inverted and turned upside down –
painful, because I feel sure the consequence to that child’s character in the
end will be self-will, pride, and self-conceit. You must not wonder that men
refuse to obey their Father which is in heaven, if you allow them, when
children, to disobey their father who is upon earth.
J.C. Ryle
The Duties of Parents, 1888.
Rejection of
parental authority is a rejection of God’s authority. And the rejection of God’s authority is, in
fact, claiming his authority as my own.
It is an attempt to be God.
Age of Opportunity, P&R
Publishing, 1997, p. 120, Used by Permission.