Taming Your Kid's Tongue: A 5-Day DevotionalSample

     As flawed parents with a sin nature, there are times we are bound to blow it,   make wrong decisions, let our children down, and fail them in more ways than   one. However, there is one thing we can do that will always reap fruit and never return void, and that’s pray for them. Stormie Omartian says, “Being a perfect parent doesn’t matter. Being a praying parent does.”
 

    The most confident prayers we can pray are those that come directly from God’s Word. To pray for our children from God’s Word is to pray in harmony   with God’s perfect will for their lives. Rather than praying for what we want to happen, which can sometimes prove shallow and vain, praying directly from Scripture unleashes the wisdom and power of our mighty Lord. It surrenders our   foolish misconceptions of what we think is best, by acknowledging and   accepting that God’s ways our not our ways. To pray from the Scriptures is to   seek the will of the Father rather than the will of the parent. “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).
 

    Once we understand and are committed to the importance of praying for our   children, our next step toward improving our ability to parent calmly and   effectively is to come up with a good plan of action. Having a plan in place   can aid us in responding wisely rather than reacting foolishly. . . .
 

    In reality, it is impossible for you to manage your child’s tongue. James   says, “No human being can tame the tongue” (James 3:8). However, it is possible for you to help your child understand his need for Christ and the regenerative power of the Gospel in his life. Because it is God’s Word and   God’s Spirit that reveal these things, the foundation of our instruction must   derive from Scripture. Paul confirmed, “So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24a). Once your   child understands his need for Christ and his heart is being governed by the Holy Spirit, he will begin to understand the sins of the tongue and his   dependency on Christ for victory over those sins.