Single Parenting: Your Lifestyle Impacts Them

First and foremost, get this in your head:  your children are number one.  You have to put aside your desires in order to take care of them.  They are your responsiblity and your ministry.  Your choices, attitudes, spirit, friends, have an impact on your children. 

Since you are the main parent in their life, they pick up on everything you do.  Children mimic our habits, language, the way we relate to others, our work ethic, the way we dress, our choices in men, our hygiene, yes, I mean everything!  You must be conscience of this.  Your lifestyle will affect your children positively or negatively.  It's not about you.  It's about them.

Think of it this way:  If someone loaned you their car, you would want to return it to them in the same condition that you received it.  Perhaps you would go the extra mile by vacuuming, washing and shining it out of appreciation.  It's the same with children.  God has loaned them to you for a season.  God  has placed them in your hands and expects you to raise them by His word.  Chlidren are a blessing.  Consider your ways.

Ps. 51:10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Single Parenting: Come Against Those Negative Words.

I became a single parent when my son was three years old. These were some challenging years for me.  The only thing that bought the two of us through was our faith in God.  Yes, I said "our" faith.  I raised my son in the Lord.  Every morning before he left the house, we prayed together.  Whenever anyone spoke a negative word about my son, I would firmly tell that person that it would not happen.  In my time of prayer, I would come against every negative word made in my presence and those made behind my back.  I made a point of praying the word of God over my son and teaching him how to pray for himself.

As my son became older, he made some mistakes, but I always relied on the word which says, "Train up a child the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).  No matter what state your children are in, continue to pray for them, even when it looks hopeless.  God is faithful.  Believe in His word.  Pray the scriptures over their lives.  Come against those negative words.  Most importantly, get your life aligned with God's agenda!  Cover your children with the word of God. 

My son is now 25 years old, a grown man!  I still pray over his life!  He has returned to the Lord.  God is faithful and His word is true.  IT IS NEVER TOO LATE!

God Did Not Give Us a Spirit of Fear

"God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. - I Tim. 1:7.  There are many things and situations to fear in this world.  However, if we let it, these fears can overtake us and cause us to forget the love and power of God.  Fear does not come from Him, faith does.  The reverential fear of the Lord is different than the fear of the world.  A reverential fear is showing honor, respect, and having awe of your heavenly Father.  Its not a fear where you are scared to death and want to hide.

When we are in fear, we usually don't think clearly, make mistakes, and make decisions because we feel pushed "to do something".  Sometimes me make the wrong decisions.  Fear does not come from God, but from Satan.  Satan's agenda is to bombard you with so much fear, that you'll make a decision that will take you out of God's will, and into his will. 

Praise God!  Your heavenly Father has power available to you.  That power is His Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth and remind you of the love of your heavenly Father (read John 14:26-27).  Rebuke the devil and he will flee.  There is power in the word of God, but you must act on it.  The Lord has given you love, the most powerful weapon of all.  He has given you a sound mind.  Don't allow the devil to push you into insanity.  When a thought of fear comes along, speak the word and have faith in it.

GOD HAS NOT GIVEN ME THE SPIRIT OF FEAR, BUT OF POWER, AND OF LOVE, AND OF A SOUND MIND.