Indulged Children: The Opposite of God’s Plan

Dramatic Pause. A Dramatic Pause says something without saying anything at all. Dramatic Pause is a go-to for podcasters, presidents, and radio voiceovers.

It makes you look really smart, even if you're not. Feet deserve a go-to like that, like Hey Dude Shoes. Light, comfy, good to go to. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you, concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible.

Shirley Weaver wants to take you there. And now, here's today's episode. Hey, if you follow our podcast at all, or if this is your first time stopping to listen, we focus on God's intervention in the lives of His people in unusual, even supernatural ways. Today, parents and grandparents, this is for you.

This is just for you. And the information that the Lord has for you here could be really life-changing, not just for you, but for your children. Not because anyone is an authority on the subject, not at all, but because God's Word is clear.

We have a clear instruction from His Word. Listen, this time in which you and your children and your grandchildren live, there are challenges faced, no other generation has faced. Every generation has its own element of challenge.

Yours, because I believe this is such a prophetic time, is also very prophetically unique. So the question for the parents, the question for parents today, grandparents in this message, are you indulging your children? And if so, in what way, in what ways are you doing that? Because there are hundreds of ways that we unintentionally indulge them. There are ways that we intervene in their lives to sort of provide that cushion or give them what we see as the best for them. One being the over-provision in areas of material things, not just money, but provision on all levels of material support, you know, to give them really a material high. Some cultures, some places in the world do that more than others in training and equipping their children. But what you want, what you want, and you need to make a note of this, you need to stop and ask yourself, is my filter something including what is age-appropriate for my child, for my grandchild?

For example, let me give you a couple of examples. Let's say that dad is age whatever. He has worked hard, he's experienced the highs and lows of life, the difficulties plus the pleasant parts, the failures plus the successes, now has arrived at a place in life as an adult where he has the fruit of that hard labor to show and also includes his children and the benefits of that hard labor. See, the dad has a frame of reference that the children do not have. Just because they're under his roof or under his authority does not mean that the children have the same frame of reference that he has. So he has a duty to filter the things that he has access to before he makes that available to those children. They simply do not have the maturity to deal with those things in the same way that a father might. Let's say a mother, for example, is active in a socially mature setting and now she wants to introduce her school-aged daughter, could be a son, but let's say daughter, she wants to introduce her school-aged daughter into that same environment.

See, you've got a disconnect there. And as I said, this is not a parenting lecture, but just to say, if you want as your goal to produce confidence in God, this is not the way to go about it. And if you are thinking on some level of producing their confidence in you, believe me, the day will come when you can no longer provide the next extraordinary, spectacular thing that is slightly more spectacular than the last thing you provided.

So in the way that you're providing, see, you want to ask yourself, does this level of provision actually frustrate the equipping that God has in the way that he is developing my son, my daughter, to have confidence in him? Said another way, am I teaching my child to have confidence in me to look to me and to emulate me and to be like me? Do I want him or her to be like me when they arrive at the point in life where I am? Do I want them to be like me? Do I want to clone my child to make them like me?

That may sound OK. The word will contradict that kind of thinking because, see, the outcome is really diminished compared to what's possible in God. And if you're thinking about it, you know, you do not want to diminish what God has. You do not want to interject yourself into the way that God is laying out his plan for your child, both to you and to them.

You do not want to interrupt what he is presenting to them. And that would be on the level where they are, because, of course, God knows the heart. He knows what is in your child's heart. He knows what they're capable of and not capable of.

Mature enough for and too immature to grasp. He alone knows that. He can measure where they are and present them with the right way to be equipped to be what he intends for them to be. Every child born has a destiny and the parent.

Hey, life is going to be enough challenge as it is. The last thing is parents and grandparents. We should be doing is pulling that child away from confidence in the power of God. His heart for them, his love for them. You love your kids, but you don't love them like God loves them. There's a verse that I love, especially goes like this.

It's in the book of Hebrews. Jesus learned obedience through the things he suffered. He learned how to obey his father, his heavenly father, through the things he experienced.

Good things, bad things, easy things, tough things, because life is a teacher and life teaches each of us from the time we are born until the end of our lives. It is a teacher teaching us to either trust God or trust in something else. If we choose to trust something else, we are running completely opposite to the plan that the Lord has for us.

We are really in opposition to the outlay of his design, which is perfect in every way. So what we want to do is make an honest assessment at this point, how much indulging, how much of interfering, enabling, could we honestly say we have administered to that little life that we are responsible for. And we want to see all the possibilities that God has to redeem, redeem, restore the damage that we've possibly done.

Because the word is clear that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And while you might not see indulging your children as sin, you can probably see that it falls short of the glory, another word would be excellence, the provision, the plan, the design that he has, that Almighty God has for your children and your grandchildren. In the setting of this podcast, Running With Horses, our goal is really to inspire you with the kind of bold confidence in God that causes you to reach beyond the norm, culturally, socially, reach beyond that norm, and keep before your eyes the probability of unimagined possibilities that God has for you as a result of your determination to develop your confidence in him instead of something else, which is why we're speaking to parents and grandparents today. The Bible speaks of many demonstrations of God's hand revealed this way, the divine power and divine intervention that we read about in the Bible, hear about through testimonies and in stories that we read about the accounts of how this has been done in the lives of people all over the world, in every generation. So see, we're inspired when we hear these things, to develop confident trust, and also to allow God to discipline us for strength.

Actually, the word disciple includes the concept of right, righteous discipline. It's what you want for your children. It's what we want for the next generation. Like all of creation, you and I, our children and our grandchildren, we were born for a purpose. Hey, let's don't frustrate that purpose.

Let's don't eliminate that high probability that God will develop his purpose in us if we let him, if we allow him. Don't quit. We shouldn't be so quick to put our hand out to cushion the fall of that little thing we brought into the world. Let him get some bumps and bruises.

Let him get some knocks. Let him or her experience some sadness, some failure, some not always fitting in and just being so cool and wonderful, so cute and beautiful. Let them experience that. Because when you can no longer cushion the fall, believe me, those things will continue. You were born for a purpose.

We all were for this time. You got to think about that and you've got to keep it as your focus and don't get in the way. It's the purpose why we equip the next generation. And the outcome we want is excellence, yes, but it's excellence in God. I read somewhere, begin as you mean to continue going, which is a reminder that our short term decisions have long term results. It helps to be reminded of that.

I mean, we know that, right? Helps to be reminded because we want to reach a desired destination. The way we start out and the way we check ourselves along the way to make sure we're still on course helps determine if we will reach the destination we intended when we began.

When the baby was born, when we dedicated them to the Lord, when we train them early, where are we now on that same course? Believe me, it's actually pretty simple. It's pretty simple.

It's not complicated, though we can complicate it. Just see if you're still on course with the intention and the destination you had in mind when you began. Proverbs 22 verse 6 makes it clear, start children off in the way they should go.

And even when they're old, they won't turn away from it. So let's say that what we have laid out today really resonates with you and that you see yourself here in this setting. And you think and you're thinking, yeah, I need to switch gears. We need to change course here.

I've gotten off course. So recognize what you're doing and the supernatural part that God wants to gift to you right now. And believe me, he's eager. He's waiting. He wants to give to you right now to redeem.

Here's the supernatural element. He can redeem what has already happened, mistakes already made, a course change that needs to happen. Any place where you have misstepped, any missteps of yours, you want to say, God, I need you to redeem this. And then you should watch him do that very thing. Your response going forward from this point, now that you're seeing clearly, this is resonating with you, means everything.

It means everything that you recognize and that you decide to change, adjust, tweak, going forward. Said another way, just to be blunt, you need to stop. You need to decide to stop indulging your children. They are not sufficiently mature mentally. Their little hearts can't handle all that exposure.

They look grown because they're tall or taller. They seem to be more savvy. Well, hopefully, if they're older children, they are more aware than they were as toddlers. But there is no reason to cause that to fast forward beyond what their soul can accommodate. The soul is the mind, the will, the emotions, everything that has ever happened to you and how you responded.

That's it's the makeup of who that person is. To repeat what we said earlier, only the Lord knows the depth or the dimension of what your child is capable of. Your job is to see to it that they are protected, that the heart is protected and kept as innocent as possible for as long as possible.

And again, in some parts of the world, it is very difficult to guard the innocence of a child's heart and mind. But we all can make this our goal and to our due diligence to seek the Lord. Ask him, are we on course with the purpose for my child's life? The destiny you have in mind. And am I doing this in a way that honors and glorifies you?

You say that to the Lord and believe me, if you ask him, he will help you with that. I say, believe me, because we learn ourselves and then we have so much to share. I am sharing with you things I've learned and there's so much more to learn. So we continue to watch for one another, help one another. And this word today is coming alongside of parents and grandparents to say what Ephesians three, two verses there. Verse 20 and 21 sets it out like this. Now unto him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that you can ask or think, according to the power that works within you. To him, therefore, will be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus in every generation forever and ever. Amen and amen.

We should stop indulging our children. We need God's power to help us do that. We need to follow his design and his plan. Let's pray that way. Father, in Jesus name, that is our prayer, our request. We look to you for help. Show us where we failed.

Show us where we've missed the mark. Show us where we've fallen short and then lay out for us clearly, clearly the path that you have for each of my children, for each of my grandchildren. And God, I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit, do not let me miss this.

Do not let me fail. And when I reach with my hand to provide something that my child cannot handle, something that is not good for them, quicken me by your spirit, check me, remind me, know that that is something that is coming out of the inside of me and it is not your highest and your best for them. And Lord, I promise when you check me like that, when you quicken me like that, I will obey you. I will obey you. And I pray over my children, over every one of them individually that like Jesus, they will learn obedience to Almighty God through the things that they experience that are not necessarily easy.

But will always be worked for their good, according to the working of your power in their lives. We pray this in Jesus name. And God, we thank you in advance for everything that you are doing in the lives of our children, in the lives of our grandchildren.

And today, God, in our lives, thank you for intervening and talking to us. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen.

Listen, don't you forget, you have the bond of Christ. That means you think like a king. You think like a king. You have the thought life of a king. Amen. God bless you. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.