It is within human nature to try to please others by being nice. However parents can’t always be nice if appropriate discipline and boundaries are used to teach children how to live in a family and society. Refusing to enforce rules and boundaries goes against God’s guidelines for parenting.
Making every effort to please is an attempt to avoid feeling guilty. Unreal or pseudo guilt is triggered by the failure to please everyone. At this juncture ask, “Is it better to be loved and accepted at this moment or to be respected?”
Most parents know children will not always like them, maybe even hate them.
Children who respect their parents go out into the world with a greater chance for success than those who have been pampered and coddled. Let this appeal be yours from Psalm 25:4-5: “Show me your way, O Lord. Teach and guide me in your truths, for you are my God and my hope.”
“For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the
Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
~Isaiah
55:8-9 New International Version
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