A few more ways parents provoke their children to anger

Sixth, you provoke your children to anger when you always have to win every argument, even arguments that don’t matter.If you have ever taken a dog for a walk, you know there are some dogs who have to chase anything that moves. They see the smallest thing, even grass blowing in the wind, and they are gone! When it comes to arguments and quarrels, there are people who are a little like that too. They can’t let an argument go. Any time there is a chance to show that they know more than someone else, that they are smarter than someone else, that someone else is wrong, they take it. They are gone.And sometimes people do that even with their kids, you will find these grown people who will get into an argument with young kids arguing about the smallest things, because no one is wise enough there to say, you know what, what color the carpet was at that house we stayed at three years ago is really not a subject worth getting into a fight about.The writer of Proverbs talks about these kinds of people, it describes them as people who love quarrels and it says, that you shouldn’t be surprised that people who love to fight experience a whole lot of strife in their life.Seventh, you provoke your children to anger by being a mocker.And by mocker, I mean one of those guys who looks down on his children, and really gets his kicks out of making fun of them. Small people enjoy making fun of small people. We often think it takes two to quarrel, but you know what, sometimes it only takes one. When you have a person who enjoys hurting other people with his words, you are going to have angry children.Proverbs 22:10 says you drive out a scoffer and strife will go out, and quarrelling and abuse will cease.Now it is obviously not wrong to have fun with your children and even to tease, but there is a big difference between laughing with your children and laughing at them. Something is a little wrong when you find pleasure in making other people feel stupid or inadequate or awkward and if you enjoy that feeling can I just plead with you to check your heart, something is seriously off there and the good news is that there’s a Savior for that, Jesus came for sinners, even sinners who are so messed up that they make fun of small children, but the thing is, you have to recognize this as sin and as just another example of how you can’t save yourself, because there is something deep down wrong with you on the inside.