Role Models- Who me?

YES ME!

Our children come into contact with so many different people each and everyday. School, friends,media (TV,radio,magazines), sports. All sorts of people have the opportunity to be a role model in our kids lives. The question is, what type of role model are they? Who is the major influence in the lives of our children? Over the years I have shared with the children and with parents the importance of knowing who our children are being influenced by. Our children are going to be influenced whether we like or not by people outside our home. They will be influenced positively or negatively. That is why it is so important for us to be a part of our children's lives. We need to be aware of the people that may have an influence in our kid's lives. We can't always control the people who come into contact with our kids, but we can teach our children how to make moral decisions when out of our sight.
One area we do have control over who is influencing our children is right in our homes. What type of influence am I to my kids is the question that we must ask ourselves. Am I modeling godly behavior? Do my kids see me reading the bible,praying,helping the poor etc....?
Do you remember the commercial several years ago about the dad who kept asking his son where did he learn about drugs and finally the boy said "I learned it from watching you Dad"! Our kids are watching our every move as they are learning how to live life.Unfortunately parents in the home are not the only influence the children receive. A BIG QUESTION we must ask is, what/who am I allowing to come into my home that is influencing my kids.
Now listen, I am not against television, music,magazines, sports etc...., but I think it is a dangerous thing to let our kids be influenced by people we don't really know. Let's face the truth some of these people are influencing our children negatively and ultimately are pulling them away from God. I think we should all want to be the heroes in our kid's lives rather than a rock star,model,reality t.v. personality so on.
So, how do we do this?  Here are 4 things that we can do:

1. Pray- ask God to search your heart, Lord am I the type of role model that you want for my kids? If not take a courageous step toward becoming one
2. Model- become the parent that your son/daughter want to grow up to be like rather than some person on T.V. or some music star or some sports hero
3. Who- find out who their friends are, who their friends parents are, go on a recon mission before sending your kids into the war zone.
4. Monitor- keep watch on the type of message that people are giving our kids through the media that we allow into our homes

Mom, Dad these are our kids, they are worth it! Do we want to see our world change? Do we want to see our nation become a moral nation again? I believe we all would say yes! Then YOU be the major influence in your kids not someone else. Because guess what? You already are! The decisions we make everyday affect our children. Check out this link for some news on the type of people that are an influence in the lives of our young people https://e.commonsensemedia.org/pub/sf
  As a Children's Pastor I am here to partner together with you to make this happen. Everyday I ask God to help me live for Him. And when I am with kids I convey that pray to them. As always I am here to serve you and your kids.