Unison Parenting Blog: People Are Watching You

Matthew 5:14-16  “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Maybe it is because of my past as a preacher’s kid, always under the watchful eyes of others. But I frequently told my children, “People are watching you.”

This wasn’t meant to make them paranoid but to encourage them to set an example, using Matthew 5:14-16 as a core passage.

For instance, I stressed to them that you’ll often find that people are watching and waiting for someone to do the right thing. They may not want to be the first to do the right thing when wrong behaviors and values are swirling around them, but if someone takes a stand for good, they will follow.

My wife and I often repeated this theme that people are watching you, so respond as Christians bearing light. The theme must have sunk in. Feeling guilty because someone said I shouldn’t have exposed my children to a public school setting and should have home-schooled them, I went to my oldest son, a high school senior. I asked, “As I sent you off to high school, what did you learn from me about being in a less-than-pristine environment?”

He replied, “Your message was to be a light, to not be influenced by others to do the wrong thing, but to influence them to do the right thing.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Parents should realize another aspect of this tenet: our children watch us. They watch how we are a light in the world. They see how we treat others – strangers, neighbors, family. They learn how to treat us by how we treat our own parents.

My children were amazed when a restaurant undercharged me, and I insisted that the server revise the bill to show the proper amount. Since then, I have seen them take similar approaches.

Children need to know that people are watching them to see if they will stand up and do the right thing. Parents need to know that their children’s eyes are on them to do the same.