Lovingly discipline your children and lead them to love Yahweh with all of their hearts.

King David was a man after God's own heart.  He didn't live a perfect life, but he loved Yahweh with all of his heart.  Unfortunately, he didn't discipline his sons.  I'm speculating that the situation with Absolom turned into a nasty mess because David didn't process through his own sin to the point that he could rebuke his own son on the same issue.  

So, I'm speculating that there was a similar absence of discipline with Solomon because Solomon took it to a whole new level, (i.e., three orders of magnitude higher with 1000 "wives" who led him astray, 1 Kings 11).  Again, I'm speculating that Rehoboam grew up undisciplined and entitled, because how else could Rehoboam, son of the wisest man on the planet, be such an absolute knucklehead with such a massive ego (1 Kings 12)? 

So, when Jeroboam rebelled and became king of the northern 10 tribes of Israel and led them to worship golden calves at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 11-12), you can begin to see the spiral down the drain. (Wait, didn't the Israelites already learn that lesson about not worshipping golden calves?  No, apparently not, because it was like a cancer for the rest of Israel/Samaria's history.) Even when Jehu obeyed Yahweh in wiping out all of the descendants and affiliates of Omri, Ahab, Jezebel, and the servants of Baal (2 Kings 9-10), Jehu still did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam of worshiping the golden calves (10:29).

I'm thinking that we need to teach our children to be shepherds.  I think this was an aspect of King David's heart that set him up to be a man after God's own heart.  I think shepherding is key.  And admitting your failures.  So, I need to be transparent with my kids about my failures and figure out how to help my kids take the responsibility of shepherding their own hearts and the hearts of others to love Jesus.

Father, thank you for shepherding me, my wife, and my children.  Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd.  Holy Spirit, please help me be a good shepherd of my wife and children, and help me teach them to be good shepherds like you.  I love you.