Cindy Seay Interview Pt. 2

Posted on 04.30.08 in Family Parenthood Parents University and there are 1 comments.

This is Part 2 of an interview with Cindy Seay (click here for Part 1), mother of Brian, Chris, Robbie, Jennifer and Jessica. I don’t know about you, but I’m incredibly eager to learn from parents who are “on the other side” and have raised children who are passionately following God.

Cindy and her husband are some of those blessed parents. Enjoy her words of wisdom…

On With The Interview...

How did you find quality time for each child?

This was hard. The kids were close in age and there was always something to do. We tried to take one of them with us to run errands or out for a special treat. We did the best we could to spend time with each of them. My husband would work at taking each one of them out for special evenings.

What was the hardest season of parenthood and how did you overcome it?

When we look back on the many years of parenting we would agree that the most difficult years were the pre-adolescent years (11-13 years old). There is so much confusion and hormones surging through their minds and chaos comes easily. These were the years when it was important to have one on one times with them.

How were you able to balance your time? Time for God, time for your husband, your kids and a you?

In the early years of my marriage and parenting I read a book by Linda Dillow called Creative Counterpart. This book had a major impact on me. It gave me great direction in maintaining my priorities. Of course, I didn’t achieve that all the time. I kept my list of priorities in my Bible and I worked hard to start my day with the Lord – not neglect my husband – be the mom my kids needed – make my home a place of refuge – and then be available for any other ministry opportunities that God had for me. I tried to focus on my husband, kids and home and did not do too many things outside of those priorities. It seems to me that today women try to “do it all” and they find themselves constantly stressed and frenzied over how to do the things that are most important. If you are stressed over the priorities – then you probably need to reassess and make some changes.

When people ask us for advice on how to raise godly children I would say this…

Pray, Pray, Pray
Be consistent.
Be real and honest.
Be vulnerable and ask for forgiveness when it is appropriate.
Never use church activities as a punishment by not allowing them to attend church activities. We felt that our kids needed to be in every kind of activity that the church offered. This just helped to keep their focus on learning about Jesus.
We never expected anything but the best from our children. We were not obsessed with grades – we simply wanted our kids to give it their best. They have all been dreamers to some degree and we have encouraged them to be whatever they believed God called them to be.
We did not allow our kids to have jobs that would keep them from attending important church activities. We believed that they would have the rest of their lives to work. The teenage years are crucial as they grow in their walk with the Lord. It will help determine their priorities when they leave your home and go to college. All of our children felt God’s call on their lives at summer student camps.
We used their senior year in high school to begin to “let go”. We allowed them to make some of their decisions. They did not have a curfew that year but if they came in after midnight we would have a talk about whether that was really wise. (I always told them that nothing good ever happens after midnight. I think my mom told me the same thing) It is a great way to allow them to practice with our wisdom readily available.
We believed that it was important for them to go away to college after high school graduation. This gave them an opportunity to work on being an adult in a somewhat safe environment.

We were not even near perfect parents. We made plenty of mistakes. I hope that in the process of making mistakes that we were honest and open with our kids and they could see a bit of Jesus in us. That was always our goal.

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