{"id":8726,"date":"2015-03-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=8726"},"modified":"2015-03-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T05:00:00","slug":"31-questions-to-help-you-be-a-better-parent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/parenting\/foundations\/character-development\/31-questions-to-help-you-be-a-better-parent\/","title":{"rendered":"31 Questions to Help You Be a Better Parent"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Feeling passionate about parenting? If you\u2019d genuinely like a shot in the arm for your parenting, perhaps these questions can get you started. But remember: Their effectiveness is proportionate to your level of honesty, humility, and most of all, dependence on God\u2019s power to make His presence a reality in your children\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> What are the most significant cravings of each of my kids\u2019 hearts?<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> How am I doing at building a relational bridge with my children? Do I \u201chave their hearts\u201d? Do they feel connected with and encouraged by me? Do I feel connected with them?<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> When I\u2019m honest, what top five values do I feel most compelled to instill in my children? Would those line up with the top five values God would want my children to have?<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> What are each of my children\u2019s greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses?<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> Am I being faithful to pray diligently, deeply, and watchfully for my kids? (For a great FamilyLife resource on this, click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> Which child in our family is most likely to be overlooked, and why?<\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> Which child tends to receive most of my attention? Why?<\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> How do I believe other people see each of my children? How do I feel about that? What portion of others\u2019 opinions could I learn from, and what should I set aside?<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> Are my children developing more into givers than takers?<\/p>\n

10.<\/strong> What life skills would I like my children to develop this year?<\/p>\n

11.<\/strong> What are the events on the timeline of my children\u2019s lives that have the most impact?<\/p>\n

12.<\/strong> In what ways have my children exceeded my expectations?<\/p>\n

13.<\/strong> Do I have any expectations of my children that have become demands that I clutch out of fear, rather than hopes that I seek from God by faith?<\/p>\n

14.<\/strong> In what ways do I feel disappointed by my children? What can I learn from this? (For example, about what is valuable to me, about how God has made my children, about loving as God loves, etc.) What should I do about this in the future?<\/p>\n

15.<\/strong> What is my greatest area of weakness as a parent? My greatest strength? What are my spouse\u2019s?<\/p>\n

16.<\/strong> In what ways are my children totally unlike me?<\/p>\n

17.<\/strong> What did my parents do particularly well? In what ways do I hope to be different? (Is there any forgiveness that needs to happen there?)<\/p>\n

18.<\/strong> What events from my childhood are important for me to shield my own children from? Are there ways that this has led to excessive control?<\/p>\n

19.<\/strong> In what areas are my children most vulnerable?<\/p>\n

20.<\/strong> What do I love about my kids? About being a parent?<\/p>\n

21.<\/strong> How well do my spouse and I work as a team in our parenting?<\/p>\n

22.<\/strong> How am I doing on preparing my children to be \u201claunched\u201d as thriving servants for God in the real world?<\/p>\n

23.<\/strong> What can I do to equip my children to love well? To be wise? For successful relationships?<\/p>\n

24.<\/strong> How is my children\u2019s understanding of the Bible? How would I describe each of their relationships and walks with God?<\/p>\n

25.<\/strong> Who are the other influential people in my kids\u2019 lives? As I think of my children\u2019s friends, teachers, coaches, etc., how can I best pray that they will complement my parenting and my kids\u2019 needs?<\/p>\n

26.<\/strong> Am I replenishing myself and taking adequate rests, so that my children see the gospel work of grace, patience, and peace in my home?<\/p>\n

27.<\/strong> What are each of my kids passionate about? How can I spur on and develop their God-given passions?<\/p>\n

28.<\/strong> How am I doing on teaching them biblical conflict resolution? Am I teaching them to be true peace-makers \u2026 or peace-fakers, or peace-breakers?<\/p>\n

29.<\/strong> How authentically do I speak with my kids? Am I building a bridge of trust and security through my honesty and openness with them?<\/p>\n

30.<\/strong> Am I striking a good balance between protecting my kids and equipping them for whatever they may encounter when they step outside of my home, now and in the future?<\/p>\n

31.<\/strong> What great memories have I recently made with my kids?<\/p>\n

\n

Copyright \u00a9 2015 by Janel Breitenstein. Used with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Answer these questions with honesty, humility, and dependence on God’s power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":8727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Answer these questions with honesty, humility, and dependence on God\u2019s power.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2850],"tags":[],"equip-category":[],"cwp_profile":[2801],"class_list":["post-8726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character-development","cwp_profile-janel-breitenstein"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2018\/04\/31-questions-to-help-you-be-a-better-parent_1024x326.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2018\/04\/31-questions-to-help-you-be-a-better-parent_1024x326.jpg",1024,321,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Katherine","author_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/author\/kclemensfamilylife-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Answer these questions with honesty, humility, and dependence on God's power.","meta_box":{"_cloudsearch_visibility":"","profile_obj_manual_select":false,"profile_obj":false,"separator":false,"enable_link":false,"login_restricted":"","content_type":"","disclaimer_banner":"","currency":false,"pricing_subtext":false,"element_type":false,"date_field":false,"date_format":false,"theme_header_position":"","post_header_is_sticky":"","is_header_overlay":"","series":false,"ignore_sticky":false,"conditional_blocks_category":false,"cta_selection":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8726"},{"taxonomy":"equip-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/equip-category?post=8726"},{"taxonomy":"cwp_profile","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cwp_profile?post=8726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}