Family Talk Night Light for Parents

Quantity and Quality

Every prudent man acts out of knowledge, but a fool exposes his folly. Proverbs 13:16

The old debate about which is best for your children, “quantity time” or “quality time,” shouldn’t be a debate at all. Your children need both. After all, when you look forward all week to an evening at your town’s finest and most expensive restaurant, you won’t be satisfied with a huge serving of steak that tastes awful. Nor will you settle for a tiny bite of the best steak ever. No, at those prices, you deserve quantity and quality! And that’s just what your kids deserve from you.

Of course, some of us deceive ourselves. We think we’re giving our children the undivided attention they need. But you’re missing the target if you have a football game on television while you play Monopoly with the kids, or read the paper while “helping” them with homework, or drive them to the office to color while you work, or take them to one movie at the multiplex while you watch another. Sure, your kids may enjoy some of these activities, but they also know the difference between an involved parent and one who’s merely pretending. They deserve “sincere” love (Romans 12:9).

Like the fool in the book of Proverbs, we’ll eventually expose our folly if we try to fake significant interest in the lives of our kids. Let’s be “prudent” parents and give them our best effort.

Before you say good night…

Do you ever try to substitute a few “quality” minutes for significant time with your kids?

Do you give the kids your full attention when you’re with them?

Lord, thank You that even as You direct the stars and planets, You still hear our feeble cries and give us Your attention. Help us, Lord, to be like You. Help us to listen to our children, to make time for them, and to let them know in a thousand ways how much they are loved. Amen.

• From Night Light For Parents, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson
  Copyright © 2000 by James Dobson, Inc. All rights reserved.