Today's Word
Ephesians 6:4
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Reflection
This word is spoken to parents. "Do not provoke your children to wrath" assumes that parents, too, can wound a child's heart. Authority is not a tool for crushing. A way of speaking that angers and shrinks a child loses its way, however right the content may be.
Instead, raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Correction has its place, but its texture is different — teaching rather than browbeating, building the child up rather than venting one's own mood.
Recall the temperature of the words you gave a child today, or anyone in your care. Did a right word arrive cold? The same words can provoke, or they can help someone grow.
To keep one verse in your heart each day
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