GRACE-FILLED PARENTING There is nothing more important to
consistent, faithful, patient, loving, and effective parenting than
to understand what God has given you in the grace of his Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Understanding God's grace will change you, and
as it changes you, it will change the way you relate to and parent
your children. God doesn't call people to be parents because they
are able. If you read your Bible carefully, you will understand
that God doesn't call able people to do important things. Abraham
wasn't able. Moses wasn't able. David wasn't able. The disciples
weren't able, and the story goes on. The reason for this is that
there are no able people out there. They just don't exist. And they
surely don't exist as parents. God did not create human beings to
be independently able; he designed us to be dependent. It's not a
sign of personal weakness or failure of character to feel unable as
a parent. None of us has the natural storehouse of wisdom,
strength, patience, mercy, and perseverance that every parent needs
in order to do his or her job well. Since independent ability, like
independent right-eousness, is a delusion, why would a God of
perfect wisdom ask inadequate people to do such an important job?
The answer is so crucial to grasp. God calls unable people to do
important things because ultimately what he's working on is not
your immediate success, but that you would come to know him, to
love him, to rest in his grace, and to live for his glory. God
calls unable people to do the impossible so that in your search for
help, you would find more than help--you would find him. God never
sends you into anything without going with you. He never tells you
to do something without giving you what you need to do it. This is
the story of the whole Bible. This is why God sent his Son to
earth. But what does this have to do with parenting? Everything! It
means that if you are God's child--if you have placed your trust in
his Son, Jesus Christ, as your Savior from your inherent sin--it is
impossible for you to be left to your own limited package of
resources. God is in you and with you! In the morning, when you
dread getting out of bed and facing another hard parenting day, God
is with you. He is with you when your children are in your face and
disrespectful. He is with you when you fall into bed with a
combination of exhaustion and regret. He gifts you with his
presence. And he will not turn his back on you until what he has
called you to do as a parent is complete. What do you have as a
Christian parent? You have the best thing ever and with it you have
hope. You have God in every moment of the day. But, will you
remember that you do? God's grace works to open your eyes to see
yourself as a parent accurately. If you fall into thinking that you
(as the parent) keep God's law perfectly, then you expect the
people around you to do the same. This self-righteousness will have
a negative effect on your relationship with your children and the
way you handle their weakness and failures. So here's what God does
in all of our lives. He uses things like our marriages and our
parenting to expose thoughts, attitudes, and desires in our hearts
that we previously denied were there. God uses irritation,
impatience, anger, and lack of gentleness and joy to show how much
we need his forgiving and transforming grace. God's plan is to make
his invisible grace visible to children by sending parents of grace
to give grace to children who need it. And parents who know they
need grace tend to want to give grace to children who are just like
them. God's grace grows and changes you as a parent. Remember the
gospel; although the power of sin has been broken in the beautiful
justifying mercies of Jesus Christ, the presence of sin still
remains with us. So God's present zeal is to progressively deliver
us from the remaining hold that sin has on us. Think about how
beautiful this is. In every moment you are parenting your children,
the heavenly Father is parenting you. As you are lovingly
confronting your children with the hope that they would confess
their need and commit to change, the heavenly Father is confronting
you. God hasn't just sent you to do his work in the lives of your
children; he will use the lives of your children to advance his
work in you. God's grace liberates you from the prison of regret.
One of the most beautiful things about God's grace is that it
welcomes you to fresh starts and new beginnings. Way too many
parents are paralyzed by the "what ifs" and "if onlys." Yes, you
will make mistakes. Yes, you will learn and grow as a parent. Yes,
you will look back and be embarrassed by things you said and things
you did. If you're at all humble as a parent, you will look back
with some regret. But it's important to understand that although
regret is a sign of a humble heart, it is also dangerous and
debilitating to live in regret. Living in regret robs you of your
confidence. It weakens or steals your hope. And for all of its
remembering, regret can be tragically forgetful. It tends to forget
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the cross, Jesus bore the
entire burden of our guilt and our shame. On the cross, Jesus
purchased, by the shedding of his blood, our complete forgiveness:
past, present, and future. This means we can boldly come to him in
our failure, receive his forgiveness, deposit our regret at his
feet, and move on to new and better ways of doing what he's called
us to do as parents. God has called you to be a parent. How does he
give you what you need for this calling? He gives you what you need
by giving you himself, and in giving you himself, he showers his
amazing, forgiving, rescuing, transforming, empowering, and
wisdom-giving grace down on you. The one who called you to this
very important job is with you. And because he is always with you,
you as a parent can always have hope.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!