Ephesians 6

Verse 4 states, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” So many times we hear, children obey your parents, in fact, it was mentioned in the first 3 verses of this chapter, but it is also important for parent to know how to treat their children.

As verse 4 says, we as fathers (parents) are not to exasperate our children. Exasperate means several things infuriate, frustrate, annoy, madden. I am very guilty of this very thing. In my parental power, I tend to “lay down the law” without regard for my sons’ feelings or discovering the source of their problems. I am the Dad, what I say goes. While I will say, there are times when that is the case and it will remain so (specifically if it what they would do would be sinful or do them harm); however, there are many other situations where I act out of anger or frustration and exasperate them, which is wrong of me. For that, I truly apologize to them now and to God as well for not being a proper example of the Lord.

Instead of exasperating my children, I could take the extra time to hear their side of the story, to determine their views and feelings on the issues, and be a leader of Christ to show them the proper ways of handling problems/issues, by taking them to the Lord. In doing this, I am training them to seek God and following the will of God by properly instructing my children.

Lord, please forgive me for not following Your Word, for exasperating my children instead of lifting them up to You. Please help me to remember and honor Your will by bringing them up and training them properly in Your instruction.