1Sa 2:29 Why…do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above Me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’
Eli was a mild and gentle old man with a weakness, he let his sons do whatever they wanted with little control. Even when God said He would judge his sons, Eli did not seem to be moved to plead with God for his sons as Hannah did for a son she did not have. He was a father who gave up on his sons.
In raising children, mildness and gentleness should be accompanied with firmness. To have no order, duty, structure, correction, discipline is to honor kids’ wants more than God’s. That is to say, when we disregard His means of loving discipline of kids and resort to other ways that He never prescribed, His name is blasphemed when kids are out of control. When we return to God in a way of duty and bring up our kids in the way He prescribed, He will return to us in a way of mercy. Parents do their part and God does His. 1Ti 3:5 “for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?”