Avoiding the Pitfalls of Provoking Children to Wrath

Pearls of Biblical Wisdom for Believers and Fathers

Season 3 Episode 40 -- Pastor Barrett Marshall joins me in this podcast today. He is the senior pastor of Greenville Christian Fellowship in Greenville S.C. We begin by discussing the reality of how imperfect we human fathers are apart from abiding in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without having a healthy relationship with our Heavenly Father through Christ our Lord ourselves, we will never be able to disciple and shepherd our sons and daughters as earthly fathers.

We continue by discussing how one generation of fathers can pass on God's truth to the next generation of fathers in an ever increasing spiritually fruitful way. We explain how critically important it is to understand that truth out of balance leads to heresy. Some of the practical points we discuss concerning fathers avoiding provoking children to wrath are: # 1 -- Time With Your Children # 2 Refusing to listen carefully to your children # 3 Permitting or Tolerating Bad Behavior # 4 Demanding Too Much From The Children.

A book written by John R. Rice is recommended entitled "The Home" --Courtship, Marriage and Children. In this book there is substantial information as to how Susannah Wesley approached parenting and some of the essential Biblical Principles required if fathers and mothers are to see spiritual fruitfulness in the lives of their children.

We also explain that many times it is out of failure we fathers discover the truth of how to properly bring up the children God has entrusted to us.

Pastor Barrett spends some time explaining exactly what does it mean to "provoke them to wrath." We seek to give illustrations out of our own lives as fathers and also illustrations out of the lives of other fathers to help us all gain the proper understanding of how to be a godly father.

At the end Pastor Barrett shares how our heart goes out to every father because we all know the challenges we encounter in seeking to properly train, disciple, discipline and shepherd the hearts of sons and daughters. May God fill each of you fathers with the wisdom and understanding you need from Him so that you can effectively lead your children to come to know salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ and they also can come to know the only perfect Father there is -- God our Heavenly Father !!