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A Parent's Influence

"Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck."¹

    I took a piece of plastic clay
    And idly fashioned it one day;
    And as my fingers pressed it still,
    It moved and yielded at my will.

    I came again when days were past,
    The form I gave it still it bore,
    And as my fingers pressed it still,
    I could change that form no more.

    I took a piece of living clay,
    And gently formed it day by day,
    And molded with my power and art,
    A young child's soft and yielding heart.

    I came again when days were gone;
    It was a man I looked upon,
    He still that early impress bore,
    And I could change it never more.

                             – Author Unknown

Basically, we raise not necessarily the children we want, but more so the children that we the parents are. Therefore, one of the greatest gifts that we parents can give to our children, after showing them the way to Jesus, is to model the kind of person that God wants us to be so that they, seeing that in us, will want the same for themselves.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to model for my children the kind of person you want me to be so that my children will see you in me and want the same for themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Proverbs 1:8-9 (NIV).

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