by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n
A while back, one of my daughters was going through a box of her papers that we had stored in our attic. She ran across a paper she had written and given to me in her teen years that listed 10 reasons why I should let her get her belly button pierced. In fatherly fashion, I responded with a list of my own why it was not such a good idea.<\/p>\n
One day she texted a picture of the papers to me along with a “thank you” for not letting her do it! I texted back that I was such a mean daddy. No, she said, you were a caring daddy. It made my day. Man, it made my month!<\/p>\n
I’m no expert, but perhaps a bigger lesson is that our kids need our guidance. We’re their parents first and their friends later. Let’s aim them right.<\/p>\n
“Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth<\/em>” (Psalms 127:4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Zeke Flores A while back, one of my daughters was going through a box of her papers that we had stored in our attic. She ran across a paper she had written and given to me in her teen years that listed 10 reasons why I should let her get her belly button pierced.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1028,1034],"tags":[665,29,107,945],"class_list":["post-64431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-parenting","category-teenager","tag-child-rearing","tag-parenting","tag-raising-children","tag-strictness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13993,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/things-are-improving-in-our-home-but-it-is-going-so-slowly\/","url_meta":{"origin":64431,"position":0},"title":"Things are improving in our home, but it is going so slowly!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you! Our home is slowly changing from a battle zone to a loving home. We still struggle, basically, since our 9-year-old acts like a 3 to 5-year-old, then I think she should have 3 to 5-year-old freedoms and choices. These will be earned back as she learns self-control\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Childhood"","block_context":{"text":"Childhood","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/childhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33153,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-tell-my-children-the-truth-that-their-dad-and-i-had-sex-before-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":64431,"position":1},"title":"Do I tell my children the truth, that their dad and I had sex before marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My husband and I are both Christians.\u00a0 However, we had sex before marriage (only with each other).\u00a0 I have been wondering what to tell my daughters if they ask me if we had sex before marriage.\u00a0 I am afraid if I tell them the truth, then they will think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23532,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-daughter-whom-i-had-from-an-affair-ignores-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":64431,"position":2},"title":"My daughter, whom I had from an affair, ignores me","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In my younger days, I met this woman and got her pregnant after a prolonged friendship. We were not ready for marriage and we went our separate ways. Later, both of us married to other people. I followed up on our daughter and even got her a job where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68935,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-found-out-that-the-woman-im-dating-had-a-fake-marriage-when-she-was-younger\/","url_meta":{"origin":64431,"position":3},"title":"I found out that the woman I’m dating had a fake marriage when she was younger","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question, as my head has been scrambled these past few days, though I have been praying. I have been talking to this lady for some time now, and everything has been going well. Still, while discussing things with her recently, I realized that she got her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16975,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-almost-18-year-old-daughter-appears-to-be-seeing-a-lesbian-what-can-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":64431,"position":4},"title":"My almost 18-year-old daughter appears to be seeing a lesbian. What can I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a 17-year-old daughter, soon to turn 18. I am a single mom. Her dad lives in another state but does back me on my decisions regarding discipline. She only sees him two or three times a year so he is not really the disciplinarian. After a lengthy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29013,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-keep-from-giving-in-to-my-five-year-old\/","url_meta":{"origin":64431,"position":5},"title":"How do I keep from giving in to my five-year-old?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a five-year-old, soon to be six. Her whole life I have pretty much gave in to her, and I see that this has only hurt our relationship. She is a very good kid but all too often throws a fit to get her way. My biggest problem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}