A TLP Snippet 8: What Bill O’Reilly’s Fall Should Teach You about Your Kids

Welcome to a TLP Snippet, Parenting Wisdom in 5 Minutes or Less. I'm your host, A .M. Brewster, and today we're going to discuss what Bill O 'Reilly's fall from grace should teach you about your kids.

I'm not here to provide an investigative essay or opinioned editorial on Bill O 'Reilly's debacle, but I will say this for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about and are tempted to skip this episode.

Bill O 'Reilly has been known as a conservative newsman for decades. He's built a reputation and a massive following for a quote, no-spin approach to news, and in the past few decades became a cornerstone of the Fox News lineup.

However, last week Bill was unceremoniously removed from Fox due to a barrage of sexual harassment accusations that made the execs at Fox so uncomfortable that they jettisoned the O 'Reilly factor. Again, this really has nothing to do with Bill.

Don’t Assume You Know Your Child’s Heart

This has everything to do with your kids. But here's a question we need to ask. How can a 67-year-old man who's been in the limelight for over 20 years manage to train wreck his life seemingly out of nowhere?

How did everyone miss it? And more importantly, too many times I've sat across from a parent who's in tears because their child did something they never expected. Oftentimes a child was involved in drugs, homosexuality, gambling, or gangs for years, for years before mom and dad figured it out.

How does that happen? Well, here are a few considerations. Number one, don't assume anything about your child. Understand that you do not truly know your child's heart, good or bad. My mom used to say that her crystal ball broke a long time ago.

It's important for us to remember that too. Too often we assume our kid's doing well because everything looks good on the outside. Some of us assume the worst because of just some of their immaturity.

Pray, Ask the Right Questions, and Pay More Attention

The first step is to realize that we don't genuinely know our child's heart, and that should motivate us to do three things. First, pray. Pray and pray for God's help to build a relationship of understanding and transparency with your kids.

Start as soon as you can, and that's today. And the third is you never learn anything without asking questions, and that leads me to today's second consideration. Ask the right questions. Please listen to episode five.

It's called Removing the Mask, Four Ways to Better Understand Your Child. In it, we discuss four vital questions every parent must ask themselves about their kids. These questions are a great place to start when it comes to knowing your child's heart.

And three, pay more attention. Remember those sobbing parents I told you about? Well, here's the really sad part. I was their child's teacher. I saw them a couple hours a day, whereas their parents saw them far more than I did.

But even in that short amount of time, I could tell something was wrong. My observations would prompt me to ask that child questions, probe into their life, and pay more attention. And often, I was the one who discovered the child's deep secret, sometimes because they opened up and shared it with me, and sometimes they were caught in it.

The point is, mom and dad weren't really parenting their child. Sure, they paid the bills and made the food and checked off the homework and chauffeured and even ran family devotions and referee disputes, but they weren't doing what Proverbs 25 illustrates.

The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. They weren't plumbing the depths of their children's lives, applying God's words to it, and leading their children in following Christ.

Don't let your kids be another Bill O 'Reilly. Pray, ask, and pay attention.