Kids Are Stubborn

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.

Proverbs 22:6

AUTHOR AND BIBLICAL counselor Dr. Henry Brandt used to ask parents, “How long do you have to tell a child to keep his room clean, or make his bed, or brush his teeth?”

Many parents said it took a lot of telling. “Twenty-one years,” Brandt used to say with a smile. “You have to keep reminding those kids until they grow up. They won’t get it the first, second, or hundredth time around.”

It’s so true. Parents must reinforce their instructions with repeated warnings, corrections, directions, and so on, to teach their children to live righteously on their own. What’s the upside of this? God promises that your efforts will not go unrewarded. He tells us over and over that eventually our kids will get the many things we want to teach them, and when they finally grow up, they will do those things naturally without prompting.

Don’t give up, even with stubborn kids. You may have to repeat those directions until you’re blue in the face, but God is faithful. You can trust that what you have taught and built into their lives will influence them, even if it takes twenty-one years.