Divine Parenting

Our earthly parents are given stewardship over their children much as Heavenly Father is also our father and has the ultimate stewardship over us. There are so many things we can learn from the type of parent that Heavenly Father is to His children.

"In many ways earthly parents represent their Heavenly Father in the process of nurturing, loving, caring, and teaching children. Children naturally look to their parents to learn of the characteristics of their Heavenly Father." -Elder Robert D. Hales

Heavenly Father and our parents can see things in our lives better than we can. When we obey Heavenly Father and our parents, we will be happy. Heavenly Father is the greatest example of unconditional love and giving his children agency. He loved us so much that he was willing to let a 1/3 of his children choose to follow Satan's plan because for them to grow they needed to make their own choice even if the choice was a bad one. The stewardship of parenting comes with such joy yet so much responsibility.

There are also many examples in the scriptures that help us to better follow Heavenly Father's example of teaching and guiding our children.

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." -Proverbs 22:6

Our Heavenly Father provides us with additional guidance as to how to discipline our children in the way that he disciplines us when we do not follow his counsel. The word of God is very clear for us as earthly parents to discipline our children. When we are disobedient will we escape the discipline of our Heavenly Father? No and I can assure you although we as earthly parents may “hit and miss” sometimes in our discipline, God NEVER does! You can be sure that every act of disobedience will be disciplined....and for parents to be effective we must be consistent, immediate, clear and yet loving and understanding in the ways that we teach and discipline our children.