A Parent's Toolbox

by Jennie Smith
Secondary Assistant Principal

My husband is a tried and true car guy and he loves tools.  Our garage is lined with toolboxes full of tools of every shape and size.  Whenever there is a task to be taken care of in our home, you can be sure that he has a tool for it.  The running joke with our boys is "You can never have too many tools!"  As parents, we too have many tools at our fingertips to help us raise our kids.  There are many helpful books written to give us advice for raising our children.  The internet is an easy tool to give us quick tips and tricks, and never underestimate the power of a well-written blog article.  But sometimes we forget that the most powerful tool is Scripture. 

Listen to what the Bible says about itself:

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."  2 Timothy 2:16-17 (ESV)

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."  Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)

The Bible has the power to teach, correct, rebuke, train, equip, pierce, and discern.  Isn't that what we try to accomplish as parents?  It is our greatest tool, and I for one greatly under use it.

This summer we have set a character goal for our two oldest boys - we have picked out a flaw that we have noticed is hindering them and asked them to work on it this summer.  When presented with his goal, my oldest asked "How am I supposed to do that?"  My first instinct was to google it.  Then I asked, "Are there any books on my shelf that can give me tips or ideas?"  My husband and I were talking about it one night and we realized we were overlooking the most obvious answer:  the Bible. 

Together, we began to search the Scriptures and easily found many verses that would encourage our
children in their quest this summer.  We decided to surprise the boys....we picked out our favorite verses for each of them and I typed them up on the computer with some clip art that they would like.  We printed them out after the boys went to bed, and while the boys and I were out of the house, my husband put them all over their room.  And now they can store up God's word and have the "how to" for accomplishing their goals.  Because our boys have Biblical names, we even included special verses that include their names. 

Let us not forget that the Lord himself requires us to point our children to His word.  Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise" (ESV).  So, the next time you need to grab a tool to assist you in the tough task of parenting, go to the power tool section first and allow the word of God to equip both you and your children.