Black Walnut Oil

My mother and father used to make me take Black Walnut Oil years ago. Worst tasting stuff. Ever. Period. Most horrible taste I can imagine, even though they had ‘hidden’ it in juice. It’s like dirt, and bark, and all things bitter. (So much so that I cringe years later... )But it kept me from getting sick. Something in it was good for me, something that to my young eyes was hidden by the immediately horrible taste. My parents saw through that though, they knew that no matter how bad it was, I needed it, and did their best to mask it, even if it was always leaving a bitter coating on my tongue.

Why am I telling you this? Because it is relevant. You're the parent, not the friend, so sometimes parents have to make their kids do things we don't want, for our own good. No matter how bad we say it tastes, no matter how ‘unfair’ we claim it is, you know it is better for us. God has told you to do it. So if you have to put a bitter taste in your kids’ mouths, so be it. We’ll remember it years later, but we’ll also learn to see how it helped us. That bitter medicine today, be it a cell phone taken away, a laptop being monitored, a door staying open, a party we don’t attend, a youth group we are dragged to every week, whatever it is, it is saving our souls from sickness later on.

You’re the parent – same as God is our Father. You are not just a source of resources, you are not just a support system, an ATM, or ‘the old man’. You are our leader, so act like one. Too many kids are lost to the world because the parents ‘didn’t want to be a hypocrite.’ God has given you these children, and He has told you how to raise them. Your past is irrelevant in this, for these are the gifts God has given you, and they are just as likely to turn on Him as they are to serve Him, it all depends on YOU. Are you going to be their “friend?” Give them sodas? Or their parents? And slip in some black walnut oil in their juice?