Originally posted by ToxicAvenger
It is certainly NOT a perfect world. If we all strived to make enough of a difference through our own actions, in the way we raised our own children and just maybe through influencing some other kids that don't have it as well...we can certainly work towards making things just a tad bit better.
I'm certainly NOT a perfect parent and would never claim to be.
I AM outrageously proud of the way my kids have turned out (so far...and I'm still praying hard!). My 14 year old daughter (the oldest) is standing fast on her moral principles that were handed down from her mother and father...and from her own knowledge and reading in the Bible. Yeah, yeah - you might think she's a geek...quite the oposite. She's a beautiful, athletic popular girl at school. She challenges all the other girls at her school who think that she should be wearing gobs of makeup, making out in between class, swearing, smoking, wearing skimpy clothes. Boys ask her out all the time - not one of them yet has the cojones and/or the moral upbringing to talk to me for MY approval before I let her go out on a date (she doesn't want to date until she's 16 anyways). She wouldn't have it any other way, because she lives by the black and white guidelines...not to mention the boundaries that I won't, and have never let her cross without immediate, swift and yes FAIR consequences.
My two other kids are the same way...though different in their individual character - they KNOW the rules and they love their father for enforcing them. The also love the Father that I get all my guidance from!
By the way...sometimes you DO have to let them learn their lessons on their own...but ALWAYS under the watchful and protective eyes of father/motherhood. It can be a very powerful reinforcement of "that's exactly why I'm the parent and you are the child".