Being a Good Role Model

It is a chilling thought to one day realize that your children are observing your life, logging your activities, and repeating your actions, whether good or bad. I know from personal experience that what I observed from my own father’s behavior served as both a positive and negative influence on my role as a husband and father.

As the father of two daughters, I've vowed to be an example of a Godly man. Their mother has vowed to be an example a Godly woman. As parents, we both have promised to teach them how to respect members of the opposite sex. We know that raising daughters is a bit different from raising sons. Though they are equal, males and females are vastly different from one another.

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22

Fathers of sons must repeatedly train them to think of others first and put aside their normal selfish tendencies. This must be done because one day these young men will find a young lady who catches their attention. Their curiosity and desire to get to know her will likely put him on autopilot unless he has been trained otherwise. What no father wants is for his sons to look upon a young lady as an object. Fathers of daughters don’t want her to be looked upon as such either. We can’t let our children forget that they will have to answer not only to us as their parents, but also to their heavenly Father.

Fathers of daughters must point them to God when they express insecurity through conversation, the covert shout out for attention, or by the way she presents herself. We must teach them that abstinence is the only way to honor God, prevent pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and the emotional turmoil that tends to come with pre-marital intimacy.

In-depth discussions must take place with them from an early age. The conversations should always be age appropriate and serious. Keep the conversation open and engaging by bringing it up at various times as they are maturing. We should always remind them they are God’s children, first and foremost.

Why share this today? Because this is a difficult subject. It's tough to battle teenage hormones and a loud, obnoxious world that says abstinence is for fools. As parents, we want our children to stand for more than they fall for. We want them to learn to love not only their future spouses, but love every person enough to not steal what isn't theirs to take. And I don't think we talk about it enough. I think we should have open, non-judgmental, helpful, compassionate discussions about how to get our teens through these years. We have to stick together in this. I want our daughters to respect your sons and I hope you'll teach your sons to respect our daughters.

RESPOND

Dear Lord, please help me control my personal purity and be a Godly role model to my children. Give me wisdom to teach them how to keep themselves pure in body, soul, mind, and spirit. Amen.

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REFLECT

Have you had this conversation with your children? If so, what worked for you? What didn't? Are you almost there and want some advice? If so, what do you want to know?

REMEMBER

Fathers of sons must repeatedly train them to think of others first and put aside their normal selfish tendencies. Fathers of daughters must point them to God when they express insecurity through conversation, the covert shout out for attention, or by the way she presents herself.