Parenting 101

I am so thankful for our church. I know that may initially come off as cheesy Christian-ese, but I assure you it's not. I have been in church my entire life and I have never been part of a community like this one. We do life together in a way that I have not experienced before. If we could all live in a commune, I think we would. :-) hahaha! Just kidding. But, maybe.....

This past Sunday being Father's Day, Justin taught on Fatherhood. While it was geared toward fathers and not all of it applied to us mothers, some of it did. And I want to share. And it's my blog. So, I can. :-) These are some of my paraphrased thoughts...

1. If you can't be a godly parent, you can't be a godly missionary.
So many people want to impact the world for Christ. It's our mission, right? Matthew 28 - reach the world. And I agree. I was a full time missionary for a few years and my heart is often drawn back to "the world." But, so many of our Christian homes look exactly like "the world." Yes, we are broken people, but scripture is clear - they will know we are Christians by our love. How are we loving our kids? Our spouses? Are our homes different? If we can't execute the mission of parenthood in a Christ-honoring way, neither will we impact the world.

2. Children are not a hurdle on the way to the mission.
So often we parents get selfish. It's our sinful nature, right? In the words of a youth musical I was once in: "I wants what I wants when I wants it, and I wants what I wants right now!!" But scripture is clear.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Psalm 127:4-5

I had heard this verse many times before, but it wasn't until Sunday that I was shown something different. Children are the arrows. They are an essential part of the mission, not a hurdle on the way to it. Without an arrow what good is a bow?! It's useless! Now THAT is a good word! (Thanks Justin Hyde.)

3. Parenting is inconvenient.

Dave's brother and his wife recently mentioned this to us, and we recognized the weight and value of it. Justin drove the point home yesterday. When we choose to overlook the sin in our children's lives we are valuing fleeting (temporal, relative, momentary, false...) peace over truth. We have the opportunity in their sinful moments to pause and address their sin in relation to the gospel. Or we can accuse, condemn and flip into moralistic teachings of "do more, be better, try harder." This is not the truth of the gospel. We can't be better. We are sinful, dirty and dead without the gospel. It is only by the gospel that we can even hope to be good parents.

4. Our children will take their security in the Lord from ours.

To me, this seems kind of like a "duh" moment. They learn everything from us, right? And again, scripture is clear:

He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge. Prov. 14:26

I guess for me, its a reminder. There is a direct correlation between the security I cling to in the Lord and the security they will then expect from and cling to in the Lord. So, what's one way I live that out?

There are moments when a small voice in my mommy-psyche identifies that my sweet girl's cries are nothing more than fear or anxiety. She will freak out for no apparent reason. So, I cover her. I pray peace over her. I proclaim that fear is not of the Lord and it will not take up residence in my home. He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. I proclaim it. I shout it. One time, when she was freaking out over the hairdryer being on, I screamed it above the whirl of it's little motor. My child will NOT be afraid of a hairdryer! Especially when I am holding it AND standing between her and it. She will know that her dad and I will always stand guard over her spirit against the kingdom of darkness. (mmm....I'm feeling a preach comin' on!!!!) Ya know what? It works. She quiets down everytime that this "unexplained" terror sweeps in.

So, that's it for now. Thanks for readin, friends. I know this one was long what with all the words and no adoring pictures of our little ninja. :-)