" Fathers, do not exasperate your children, instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4 NIV

Exasperate means provoke, annoy, or antagonize. If we do this to anyone it isn't right but children are impressionable and easily led astray. If we want our children to follow after God we need to set the example.

I'm sure this isn't the first time you're heard this. Setting the right example means first we have to die to self. OK, now I'll do it! Easy to say impossible to do, in our own strength. As a teacher I thought being a parent would be easy!

Parenting is not only the hardest thing I have ever done, it's frustrating! Ask five people how to handle a certain situation and you can get five different answers.

I was wrong, and to add to this I thought everything I said would be obeyed and not questioned. Why was I gullible? I didn't know what to do if my child didn't listen.

My thought processes didn't take me to the next level, so I was unprepared.  I knew what the textbooks said, but applying it to everyday life evaded me. I don't know if any parent would be prepared for my son Rudy. He tested every limit, brought me to my last nerve, got his way too many times.

I felt I was a failure at parenting. I never got him to be pliable. To this day he can question everything I do, and give a comment about it too. At age 28 he uses these skills in the courtroom to question defendants.  He can cross examine well. He spent years working on this skill with his mother! He's good at what he does.

I no longer feel a failure. Does he try me and others? Yes he does. I can handle it now and show him why he's wrong. He understands, I think. Maybe age has brought a pliable spirit? I suppose time will tell!

Don't give up in your parenting. Some of you are Grandparents. What a crazy world we live in but your love and faith can establish a child's heart and cause it to grow in love every step of their lives. It's hard but it's worth it. Anything worth doing is hard at first. Love will make a way!