Do Not Exasperate Your Child

Ephesians 6:1-4

¹ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise – ³ “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” ⁴ Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

As we continue to look at these verses – today we will begin to look at the final verse. Here is what verse 4 says – Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

For a long time – as I was growing up – I wasn’t sure what exasperate meant.  I had to look it up in the dictionary.  Doing that today produces a definition for exasperate as follows: to excite the anger of – according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.  In the KJV the word used where NIV uses exasperate is provoke – In NEB it is goad to resentment.

According to John Macarthur Jr. (Successful Christian Parenting): the children’s duty in the home is to obey.  The parent’s duty: to teach them that obedience in an environment of godly nurturing, without exasperating them in the process.