Faith Filled Family Magazine August 2016 | Page 13

behaviors and asserting their
wills (Huffman 2004, pg. 357). In
my view, some children become
self-aware even before reaching the age of one. Optimally,
parents should be aware of their
children’s development of selfawareness and begin asserting
their authority immediately. For,
unless the will learns to submit
at an early age, it will grow stronger and stronger in willfulness.
For Christians, God is an integral
part of our family dynamics—we
co-parent with Him. In influencing the development of our children’s behaviors and attitudes,
there are some things that we
are responsible to do as parents,
however, there are some things
that God has reserved for Himself to do. We should seek out
God’s direction and intervention
in rearing our children. Only God
can repair the fallen condition
inherent in each person. Sometimes He does so in conjunction
with parental training. When we
seek His guidance, He gives us
wisdom and strength in training
up each child.

lion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity
and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23a).
Samuel likens rebellion to witchcraft because both are motivated
and empowered by evil, taking
opportunity through idolizations
of self.

Regardless of how a child
becomes defiant, there is hope
of training their will to be compliant. God is the God of restoration. He changes hearts and
restores relationships. Like the
story of the father of the son with
the prodigal lifestyle, with mercy
and compassion God embraces
and redeems the wayward heart.
The first step in the restoration
process is for parents to assess
themselves to ensure they are
submitted to all spiritual as well
as physical authorities. God’s
kingdom operates on a system
of authority. Spiritual order must
be respected before parents can
expect to maintain physical order
in any area of their lives. If parents do not submit to authorities
themselves, it may be an arduous or futile task of trying to train
In some instances, parents may their rebellious child to respect
be contributors to their children’s authority. That rebellious spirit is
rebellion, but even with good already at work in the home.
parenting and God’s intervention, individual wills may be lured Samuel’s comparison of sin to
back into rebellion by spiritual witchcraft and Adam and Eve’s
evil with whom we are constantly encounter with Satan in the
wrestling. An example of this garden give us some insight
can be seen through King Saul’s about rebellion. It is not only
story. God changed Saul’s heart about the physical manifestation
and spirit to help him be an obe- in behavior. Rebellious behavdient king over Israel (a type of iors are incited by spiritual evil;
salvation). It was not long into therefore, the spiritual aspects
his kingship that Saul rebelled must be addressed as well. Paragainst God’s commands. We ents should acknowledge, conlearn from Samuel’s admoni- fess, and repent of all rebellious
tion and Saul’s own actions that deeds they and their ancestors
pride was the root of his rebel- have committed. This act severs
lion. Samuel explains that “rebel- ungodly spiritual rights and

realigns individuals under God’s
authority. Additionally, parents
should go through and cleanse
the home of all things that symbolizes or glorifies rebellion.
Then, just as individuals would
ask an unwelcomed person to
leave their home, while under
God’s authority they can certainly do the same with unwelcomed spiritual forces. Invite
God to be Lord and ruler in your
home. And, as an act of submission to God’s authority, commit
to training up children in the way
they should go. Parenting can
be daunting, frustrating, and
tiresome sometimes, but it is
important to be obedient to the
responsibility.
Once the spiritual aspects of the
authorities are in conformance
to God’s will, the physical measures may be more effective. In
his book, Parenting Difficult Children, Michael Hammond suggests that parents establish firm,
fair, clear, and necessary rules
for children at a young age, and
that the rules be based on family
values. Hammond offers the following rules to help parents with
formulating their own rules: “(1)
Focus on behavior, not attitude
(2) write down the rules; say it
out loud often (3) tie the rules to a
set of consequences (4) involve
your kids in devising rules (5)
monitor compliance with the rule
consistently” (Hammond 2014,
pg. 14-15).
Training should not solely consist
of rules and their negative consequences if broken, however.
There should be procedures in
place to reward compliance and
effort. Theorists believe having a
system of reward in place helps