The biggest job in the world is parenting. It is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 ¼ days per year. Yet it can be the most rewarding thing. I listen to a parent gloating about how they raised their children successfully to adulthood, they are married, doing well on their jobs and still in the church. That can be a rewarding experience. Good parents however, are not born to be parents; they learn the art and perfect it by exposure to training and information, experience from their own parents and wisdom from God. The question therefore is: How do I get my child to obey me? Two principles can help you: 1. Right parental style or practice and 2. Right parental examples or modelling.

There are two key principles for effective parenting: Love and Discipline

What does the Bible say about this?

“Love binds them together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:14). According to Gary Chapman, there are 5 love languages:
- Physical Touch (Good touch; not to hurt or abuse)
- Words of Affirmation
- Quality Time
- Gifts of Appreciation
- Acts of Service

Discipline is to set rules and measures to increase desired behaviour. Parental discipline will lead to self-discipline. The Bible gives evidence of verbal reinforcers and token reinforcers. Read Matthew 25:14-21 (also Revelation 2:10)

The Idiomatic expression says, “Values are more often caught than taught”. Children learn more from what we do than from what we tell them to do. So the Bible says parents should be models and live by example.

Ellen G. White states “The training of children constitutes an important part of God’s plan for demonstrating the power of Christianity. A solemn responsibility rests upon parents so to train their children that when they go forth into the world, they will do good and not evil…” (Child Guidance, pg. 21)

Every parent wants to have obedient children. We are God’s children and He wants us to obey Him.

Keeping God’s Commandments is an important part of our relationship with Him.