Text: Psalm 127

Topic: How to parent God's way

• Illustration: Thompson quotes Erma Bombeck as wondering where all the children have gone, and comparing childhood as it used to be to what it has become today.
• Parents in our society are imposing adulthood on their children too soon.

Illustration: Thompson gives the example of the Pop Warner National Academic Football Championships (or "The Kids' Super Bowl") and the Little League World Series as evidence that our society has professionalized playtime.

Illustration: In this illustration, Thompson adds that cosmetic companies are targeting girls as young as nine years old with their marketing and ad campaigns.

As parents, we must heed the message of the Bible: God is God and I am not.

• We toil in vain when we try to build the house as panicky, perfectionistic parents, instead of leaving it to God.
• We are responsible not for everything our child does, but to our Father.

As parents, we do not own our children; they are a heritage from God.

• To improve as parents, we need to pray for our children, read books and listen to tapes on parenting, and let our kids be kids.

Illustration: Thompson tells the story of a baseball season during which players hit more home runs than ever before, and everyone speculated as to why. A coach said it was because there were no good pitchers, since kids didn't get practice playing disorganized neighborhood baseball anymore.

• God gives children to us as blessings, that we might be good stewards of them.
• Illustration: Thompson quotes young Martha Taft listing her relatives and the distinctive positions they have held in the government, and she concludes by saying that she is a Brownie, illustrating the pressure kids feel to achieve.

Children are defensive weapons to be mobilized by their parents to fight future battles.

• As parents, we are to refine our children through discipline.
• Then we must let them go, to fight the battles God calls them to.