Genesis 2:24  "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (A daughter also leaves her family for her husband.)

A wise, older Titus2 Woman gave me a suggestion when I was a young mother.   She saw and heard me being overprotective with selfish motives about my children’s behavior.  I won’t elaborate on that but I will tell you that I learned a valuable lesson from her by taking her suggestion to start praying for my children’s future mates while raising my children for God first and then their spouses. So, when my son was 2 years old and long before my daughter existed I determined to order my teaching and discipline with this premise in mind.

I raised my children aiming  for what I wanted them to be as a responsible adult and husband or wife.  I wanted them to be hard and good workers, respect the law and abide by it, and speak respectably and treat with kindness   all men and especially  their spouses.  In doing this I saw long past them as children with quirky ways.  The old saying "kids will be kids" did not become a way of tolerating them until they became obnoxious teens....as I had seen some of my friends practice and find themselves up against .

I knew that how I allowed my son to treat me and talk to me would determine how his wife would be treated.  And likewise I knew that how my daughter treated and talked to her father would determine how she would communicate with her husband.  I also understood that how I taught them to clean the house and pick up after themselves would have a good or bad bearing on their marriages...and directly on  how they would train their children...the grandkids I would one day have at my house!  C:

This may seem to some a matter of semantics.  For me it was helpful in keeping motivated to be consistent and purposed in my training and discipline.  It was also extremely helpful in my untying my apron strings to let them go as adults for I had worked toward that day all of their lives.  Praying for their spouses from the time they were toddlers also helped me to have a mother’s love for my children by marriage.

Clockwise from top left:  Joe, Kristina, Peter and Sharon Merhalski

Andy & Kristina Auclair and Sharon & Peter Merhalski

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