Gratitude: How to be grateful for your child

Many parents think that children should be grateful for them, and for everything around them. There is nothing wrong with being grateful for parents, or for the food parents dish out in front of you, but many parents overstep their boundaries by ordering children falsely to be grateful for everything. The fact of the matter is that parents should be grateful for their children.

Gratitude never exists in a vacuum. Gratitude is the fruit of Christian love, with all parents everywhere being commanded by God to love their children as a neighbor. Christian love is denoted by the Greek root word αγαπαο (Latin: agapao) and refers to, in the context of parenting, prioritizing children first, and yourself as a parent last, to the point of dutiful and selfless submission to the every vulnerable need of children, expecting absolutely nothing in return, valuing children as extensions of God. True Love comes not from pride or desire, but fearful conviction, where the parent comes to the conviction that they are a depraved and decadent sinner who is deserving of absolutely nothing. This change of heart prompts the sinner/parent to pay due penance and serve their children. Children, in return, then will become thankful for the love and grace of parents, resting in the submission of parents safely and securely (Col. 3:20, Eph. 6:1-3).

"Expecting absolutely nothing in return" implies not expecting anything from your children, period. Everything your children do for you, at your instruction, is something to be grateful for, since you as a parent are to be convicted that you are a depraved and decadent sinner who is deserving of absolutely nothing, from your children or anyone else.

When we are convicted of the fact that we are undeserving of absolutely everything from children or others as sinners/parents, we value absolutely everything children give to us, never resenting or getting angry with children. Children bring joy to a home, but all too often, we as adults don't value that joy until it is all gone. Just ask anyone who has lost a child how grateful they are for the time they spent with their child while he/she was still on earth. Most parents who have lost a child are anti-spanking, by the way, and the reasons why are quite obvious to those of us who DO value children.

God gave you a child not to punish or be controlling with, but to cherish and be charitable towards. God can take away anything that child gives to you, and take away that child along with it. Be grateful for your child, for children are installments of God, called by God to bring out the charity in all mankind (see Matt. 25:31-46). If you are too harsh or cruel to your child, they may be discouraged, and they may leave you forever, and that is their right. It says in Colossians 3:21 KJV:

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by the child, coming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishments or controlling demeanor towards a child. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with kidnapping being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a captured slave. Paul was lifting up this legal context to a group of Greek Christians who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child.

Paul was ultimately trying to remind the Greek and Roman parent newcomers to the Christian Church to be grateful for their children. Parenting in biblical times was seen as a thankless job, meaning parents didn't deserve thanks in Early Christian culture, as well as preceding Jewish culture. Parents earned their thanks by being thankful for their children.

Lord, thank you for all the children and the forgiveness they have shown me, for I am a depraved and decadent sinner in relation to them that doesn't deserve their forgiveness, or anything from them. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be forever cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!