The Bible Study Podcast, episode 178.

Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of fruitful parenting.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast.

I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

This is part six of fruitful parenting.

And if you have not heard the first five parts, I suggest you pause this and go back and listen to those first.

So as we've talked about in these first five episodes, my contention is that the best verse in the

Bible in terms of a guideline for parenting is, strangely enough,

the fruit of the spirit. Now, I noticed that I've been quoting one from memory that is a little

different from the version that I have put in the show notes, which is from the new international

version. So let me read that. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things, there is no law.

Now, the three of those that we have not yet covered are patience, faithfulness, and self-control.

And I'm not sure that you necessarily see the same theme there that I do, but what I look at those three, I see a bias towards a long-term view.

And I'm reminded, first, of a psychological study, actually, that was done that said that the greatest gift you can give your children, that the greatest

attribute that will predict success in children or in individuals, was dubbed by a psychologist

to be called EQ or emotional quotient. And I don't know if you've heard the classic experiment,

but they took four-year-old children and they gave them a marshmallow. And they said know if you've heard the classic experiment, but they took four-year-old children, and they gave them a marshmallow.

And they said, if you can wait five minutes to eat this marshmallow, we'll give you another one.

But you don't have to.

You can just eat this marshmallow now.

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