No-Regret Parenting
We're listening to an old Derek Wilson sermon from 2004 about being ready for the return of the bridegroom and not having the words "if only" on our lips. And now for the rest of the week, we'll look at the four points that Derek looks at as we consider living a responsible life.
Allow me just to speak for a few moments about regret elimination, if I may. How do we reduce the regret? What do we have to deal with so that we don't get to a point in our lives where we say "if only"?
Parents Abdicating Their Responsibilities
Firstly, I think we need to have a look at our parenting, and I think it's never too late to look at this. I was talking to a local school principal this week, and we were reflecting on one of the things that we are seeing more and more and more these days in our schools, and that is that the parents are abdicating their responsibilities towards their children.
It’s reality, folks, whether you like it or not, this is what is happening. The schools are riddled these days with parents who can't be bothered about the lives of their children. They simply guide – they simply abdicate the discipline, they abdicate much of the teaching the parents need to be doing to their children. Parents are too busy carving out careers, keeping up with the Joneses, making the next million and their kids are being neglected and left to their own devices. And you know this as well as I do, except I'm just saying it this morning and maybe it hurts.
There's something sadly wrong in our families. Some of our kids desperately need confrontation. They desperately need the parents to stand up to them and take an interest in them. You don't want the bridegroom to come back and find that you abdicated your responsibility to your children, do you?
Investing Meaningfully in Your Children
What about time? That's a huge area of regret. When was the last time you did something spontaneous or unpredictable with your children? Especially with your children. Why don't you kidnap them or wake them up in the middle of the night and take them for a pizza? That's always assuming that they're home in the middle of the night, so that you can wake them up and take them for a pizza!
Why don't you just buy them a gift for no reason at all, or take them ice skating or tenpin bowling or something? When last did you invest something of yourself into your children, or are you going to get to a point one day where you say "if only, if only"? Because have you noticed your children grow up like that [snaps fingers], and the next time you look, they're gone.
