The Best Parenting Advice I Can Give

I've been thinking a lot about parenting lately. How do we figure this parenting thing out? Because I bet if we are all honest, we have ALL felt like bad parents. We don't have the answers or know what to do. We buy the parenting books. We listen to the advice given on tv. We even seek out "Christian Experts" who will guide us on this parenting adventure. So why are we not getting it right? Why do we all feel like failures? I know I do. My boys have been acting out lately, and I just can't seem to get control of it all. I can't seem to find a way to change their behavior. I actually recently bought my first parenting book but I haven't read it yet. But I have been praying and thinking and listening. And this is where I am at right now...

I think that the one thing we can do that makes us better parents and better wives is to change our focus. Instead of focusing on our kids misbehavior, our lack of parenting skills, or our failures....focus on God. It really may be that simple! I'm not even talking about looking for "parenting" answers in the Bible, or about praying specifically for our children (which of course are good things to do), but I am simply talking about working on our own relationship with Christ. Growing in His love, spending more time in prayer (about anything and everything), spending more time in His Word! When we focus on God, other things seem to fall into place. The more time we spend with Him...the more we start to reflect Him ourselves. And isn't He the perfect Father?