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NASB | Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not provoke or irritate or exasperate your children [with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive; nor by favoritism or indifference; treat them tenderly with lovingkindness], so they will not lose heart and become discouraged or unmotivated [with their spirits broken]. |
Bible Question: Exasperate. In know this can't mean that we shouldn't set limits or rules so that our children won't be frustrated. But are there any parents out there who have real-life examples of this that may help me understand more what this means? |
Bible Answer: I can't expand further than dmspen has already said. I might add that, sometimes in spite of everything you've done, your children can continue in rebellion nevertheless. Consider King David and his son Abasalom. Although a man after God's own heart, David still had problems with his children. Absalom wanted to kill him and one of his sons raped his sister! I had lots of problems with my three children. At one time, my son hated me; my youngest daughter ran away from home, became pregnant and married a womanizer. At the time, things seemed grim, and my wife and I beat outselves up about the situation. However, my children are all adults now, we enjoy each other's company and all this is now in the past. My point is, that things may seem bad, but kids grow up. My advice to you is be very patient, do what you can to keep your children out of trouble, and if they ignore you in persistent rebellion, there's not much you can do. The thing that you don't want to do is cut them off in such a way that they'll never come back. Someday they'll grow up. If you're a patient and loving parent, they'll come back and admit to you that they had acted foolishly in their youth. Try to remember your feelings when you were their age and remember that your actions were probably just as unsensible as theirs are now. Being a teenager is tough and they probably feel that you don't understand what they're going through. --Dave. |