WHEN PARENTS LOSE THEIR PRIDE by Robert Soto (Posted on an email from Words from the Creator)

WHEN PARENTS LOSE THEIR PRIDE
By Robert Soto
Posted on an email from Words from the Creator

December 4, 2009

Proverbs 17:6 "Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children."

Children are a special gift from God the Creator. They come in all different sizes and shapes. They come with many different talents. But all children come with one thing - they all need to be loved and nourished and led in the direction God the Creator has for them to go. But what happens when a child is not loved? Today I spoke and danced for a couple of groups of kids whose lives went wrong. Two groups of kids who were not loved and whose parents did not do what they were called to do, love them and bring them up in a way that honors God the Creator. A group of kids who know they have done wrong and are in a dark place, paying the price for their wrongdoing. But they are with a group of men and women who are desperately trying to do what their parents would not do - direct them in a good path. I don't know their stories and why they are in detention centers, but I could see it in their eyes today that they are all hurting.

As I left today I could not help but wonder what it would take to put them on a right path. What is missing in their life, and how could it be replaced so that they could be directed on a path that honors God the Creator? It goes back to the parents. God the Creator gave each of us parents to prepare us for whatever the future might bring. To prepare us for a path that honors and glorifies God the Creator. But when the parents fail is when the children fail. Solomon said, "Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children." The children are a crown for those aged or for the grandparents, but the parents become the pride of the children. The key to a child's success is the parents. Solomon said that the parents were the pride of the children. Things go wrong when the parents fail to be the example that brings pride to their children. Lack of pride comes when the parents decide to venture on their own and do what they feel is best in their hearts and not what God the Creator desires of them. When children lose their parental pride, they lose in life. After all, we teach by example; and if we as parents give our children bad examples, that is all our children will have to follow.

Robert Soto, Lipan Apache and pastor of:

McAllen Grace Brethren Church
The Native American New Life Center
Chief of Chiefs Christian Church