5 Infallible Ways To Produce Children Who Make You (The Parent) Look Brilliant

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Peter G. James Sinclair of Motivational Memo.

I want to make something perfectly clear to you before you read any further. I am not the perfect parent.

I am flawed. I am gnawed. I have been ignored. But I have never been bored. By the grace of God though, as a parent, I feel that at least to this point I have soared.

Why?

Because I am the parent of three children, who now as adults – well let me put it this way – I am proud as punch to call them my children.

So I do not claim to be an authority. My wife should take the credit for that, because we as a team have worked hard over more than two decades of raising children, to produce responsible citizens and contributors to our society.

So what have we done?

Well here are just 5 things that come to mind that might just help other parents who are currently swimming midstream, or who are getting ready to plunge into ‘parentdom’.

To bring up well adjusted little humans is the greatest of challenges, and it can add either the greatest of pleasure or the greatest of heartache to your life.

Hopefully, if you follow these five steps, there will be far more pleasure than pain gained in the future for you and your family.

1. Steer the peers. One of the key elements that we have initiated, throughout the years, has been that we have always placed a big emphasis of ensuring that our children were surrounded by a peer group who reinforced our values as parents.

Now I use the word steer, because if you simply demand a cessation of contact by your children with a set of undesirable peers, you will get nothing but resistance. But if you begin to guide and introduce other more positive peers, I’m a firm believer that bees will ultimately be attracted to honey.

That means though that at times you may even need to move house, move school, or even move cities. Wow that sounds drastic! Exactly. How precious are our children?

But whatever you do, steer your children towards peers who positively influence their lives. Their future depends upon it.

2. Lead the read. The first thing I bought for our firstborn was one hundred dollars worth of books that shared the stories of the Bible in a fun and enjoyable presentation accompanied by beautiful illustrations.

One of the most cherished times of my day with all our children were the nightly book readings before they went to sleep. It involved the production of different voices for each of the characters in the story being read, and reading always included a lot of laughter. Some nights, tired after a day’s work, it was hard to maintain the discipline. But we persisted, and it was worth it, because the children fell in love with books and with reading.

This has now flowed over and into the books that they read as adults – and even at this point I still guide their reading by introducing them to books such as ‘The Magic Of Thinking Big’ and ‘Think and Grow Rich’. And I’m not afraid to ask them the probing question from time to time, ‘And what are you reading at present?’ because I know that leaders are readers, and that is what they have become.

3. Show the go. Before I ever ask my children to clean their room I first take a quick look at my garage or shed. Children can pick a hypocrite a mile away – especially if it is their parent. So I have constantly had to analyse whether the way I am living is consistent with what I have asked them to do.

How can I expect them to attend church if I don’t? How can I expect them to read if I don’t? How can I get them to stop lying if they hear me telling lies on a regular basis? How can a parent challenge their children to stop smoking if they’re puffing away?

Children watch and remember what you do longer than they recall what you say. Consistency is vital in good parenting.

4. Guide the pride. To be a parent is to be a leader of young cubs. And although I endeavored to steer my family, by providing better choices without confrontation, there have been times where I have had to ‘put my foot down’ and say ‘No!’ To be a good parent you must never be afraid, at the appropriate time, of administering your parental authority. I have disciplined my children. I have inflicted punishment in love. And when I have, I have felt much pain in the ‘infliction’, but the results in my children’s lives speaks for themselves.

Because this discipline has taken place, as a part of the whole process of being a ‘brilliant’ parent, although at the time they may not have fully understood, they have responded positively, and the love and respect between us has deepened as a direct result of making the hard decision to discipline.

5. Stay to pray. To be a parent without divine help would be an incredible challenge. I really don’t know how parents do it without the power of prayer.

So what do you pray? ‘Help!’ is always a good start.

I pray for my children.  I pray with my children, and I especially pray for wisdom as a parent. I recognize that without help from the ‘General of the Universe’ I’m in trouble. As a direct result of prayer I have seen miracles occur, safety secured, and provision supplied.

I’m not smart enough to have produced three brilliant children on my own – so I look upwards on a regular basis to acknowledge that ‘I get by with a little help from my friends’.

I’ve only shared 5 ways that I have been made to look brilliant as a parent. I’m sure you can add more to the list. So what are they?

Motivational Memo: Behind every successful parent there are a bunch of surprised offspring.

Peter G. James Sinclair is in the ‘heart to heart’ resuscitation business and inspires, motivates and equips others to be all that they’ve been created to become. Receive your free inhalation of ‘motivational’ life by subscribing to his Motivational Memo Blog -and add him on Twitter @PeterGJSinclair – today!