Korie Robertson of "Duck Dynasty" fame has reminded parents discouraged by an increasingly secular culture to remember that if they keep their confidence in God, He will provide the tools necessary for raising godly children.
"I think sometimes we lose that confidence and the Bible tells us to not lose our confidence, because our confidence is in Him," Korie told said during a recent interview with "Focus on the Family" host Jim Daly. "He has given you those children. He has given you the tools and the things that you need to help them."
She continued, "And you know, whenever you point them to Him, continually pointing them to Him, He loves them even more than you do. So, I think that we can take heart in that whatever mistakes we've made or whatever things that we've done that haven't been the best for our children, our God loves them even more than we do and He is for them and He is with them and He is in them."
Korie and her husband, Willie, have been married for 25 years and have three biological children - John Luke, Sadie, and Bella - and three adopted children, Rebecca, Will, and Rowdy.
Over 11 seasons, "Duck Dynasty" allowed the Robertson family to showcase their love for adoption and foster-parenting: "[Adoption] has become more and more a passion of our heart," Korie shared. "We feel like if we have this opportunity, God has given us this opportunity to speak and to talk and then let's use it to do some good in the world."
Korie shares her tips for godly parenting in her book Strong and Kind: And Other Important Character Traits Your Child Needs to Succeed. Children, she said, need three things: consistency, security, and boundaries.
"Boundaries are good for kids and they need to feel that," she said. "That helps them feel secure. And whenever things are not consistent, whenever like one day you yell at 'em for this and the next day you don't or you just ignore it and then the next day. It's confusing and it's confusing to kids. It'd be confusing to us if someone treated us that way."
Ultimately, the most important thing for children to understand is that their lives aren't their own, but rather belong to God, Korie said
"We did that with our show, with 'Duck Dynasty,'" she recalled. "We talked to them about how, this is now about us. It's not about one individual person. It's really about giving glory to God and pointing' people to Him. So, we're not gonna get our feelings hurt if somebody is on the show more or somebody gets to do this or someone gets this privilege or someone gets this."
"You know, this is not about us anyway. And so, I think as a whole it's really a lesson of we're about pointing people to God. It's really not about each individual person."
She added, "Our faith and that strength [is not] in ourselves, but in God and in knowing His power and knowing that He lives in us, so that whenever our kids do hit those rocky roads--they hit those tough times--they won't break. They know that God is with them and He's there."
Strong and Kind, published in 2015, was recently re-released with a bonus chapter that talks about what has happened in the Robertson clan since the book first came out - namely, the 2016 adoption of Rowdy.
"We got a new son!! Rowdy! Excited to share some of his story and how our lives have changed since he came to be a Robertson," Korie wrote in a recent Facebook post. "Adoption is all kinds of messy and tender and beautiful and is God's way of mending brokenness in this world, giving a child a mom and dad, and a mom and dad a child. It's also His plan for all of us as we are adopted as sons and daughters of His!"
