IDOL of Comfort for Parents

A recent post at LifeTogether summarizes two idols for our reflection taken from Paul Tripp’s book Age of Opportunity.  These are potential idols for every parent to guard against.  Here is the summary of one of those idols that pierced my soul:

Idol of Comfort:  

Secretly in our heart, many of us want our life to be a resort. A resort is a place where we are the one who is served. Our needs come first, we have paid our money and we have the right to expect certain things. Many of us bring this entitlement mentality to our parenting. We reason that we have the right to quiet, harmony, peace and respect, and we respond in anger when we do not get it. Life is a war. If we demand comfort, regularity, peace, space, harmony, we will begin to see our child as the enemy. We will begin to fight with them rather than for them. (emphasis mine)

As a parent to two boys, one of which is a very hyper and exhausting three-year-old, it was very difficult to read these words.  May we never make our children the enemies.  Rather, we should follow the advice of another post on the LifeTogether blog and treat our children as missionaries in training.

If you haven’t visited the LifeTogether blog, then you are missing some great insights.  If you are married with children, then you cannot afford to avoid this blog.