By Joey & Carla Link
October 25, 2023
Your kids misbehave every single day. So do you. It’s called sin, and since none of us or our kids are perfect, we need to get over our unrealistic, perfectionistic expectations of them. This doesn’t mean you throw in the towel and let them do what they want. It means you expect it and prepare yourself to deal with it.
Why do kids choose to do the wrong behavior or say unacceptable words again and again? What is so attractive about it to them? James 1:14 says it’s what entices us as well as our own evil desires. Satan does tempt your kids. We know that.
This verse says our own evil desires “entices” us (and your kids/teens) to be lured away from the right thing to do. To be enticed is to “be tempted with something they like that is pleasurable.”
“Each person is tempted when he is lured away
and enticed by his own desires.
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin.”
James 1:14-15 (ESV)
When tempted with something they like to do and it is fun (pleasurable), how are your kids supposed to stop themselves from giving in to it? This is why you deal with the same wrong behaviors again and again. How do you stop yourself from giving in to wrong behaviors? Every time you yell at your child it is a wrong behavior as well.
Children who don’t get the right kind of attention at home are also prone to behaviors they know are wrong because if they aren’t getting the attention they need from you in a good way, they will seek to get it the wrong way. Are you a legalistic parent with the Choleric temperament, holding your kids to an unrealistic standard they can’t maintain? Do you have a hard time showing them love? So do those with the Melancholy temperament.
It is so easy to get frustrated with your kids when they don’t do what they should do and you know they know better. But have you ever considered what would help your child choose to do the right thing?
What can help your child overcome their sinful desires? What can help them turn from the enticements of their friends and worldly influences? What can help them when they are discouraged and defeated because they keep getting in trouble for doing the same old thing over and over and over again?
All these questions have one thing in common and we will talk about it in next week’s blog, “Helping Your Kids Choose to do the Right Thing”.