3 ONLY SAY WHAT THE FATHER TELLS YOU TO
SAY; ONLY DO WHAT THE FATHER TELLS YOU TO DO.

“Where did that comment come from?” Ever wonder what the source of some of your remarks is?

I often found myself simply parroting to my child the stuff my parents repeated often to me. Some of it was positive, but other comments really did more harm than good.

Jesus gave us a good model to follow. He only did and said what the Father told him to do and say.

In our parenting seminars with teenagers, we often have parents and youth give one another permission to ask, “Did the Father tell you to say that?” Or, “Did the Father tell you to do that?”

We need to begin listening more to God and less to our past voices, parent tapes, or worldly quips. The more of His Word that we have in us, the more likely His Word is to come out of us.

When we listen first to God, we will be less likely to spout off some inane comment to our child that hurts and crushes the spirit. When we know what God wants us to do, we will avoid acting or reacting out of anger or emotional distress.

If we have a hard time hearing from God, we need to spend more time with God—in Scripture, prayer, meditation, contemplation, worship, praise, silence, and intercession. Wouldn’t it be great if our children knew we had just been with God before we spoke into their lives? Wouldn’t it be awesome if our children knew that our touch, our expressions, our words, and our deeds were simply an extension of His?

Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak (John 12:50).