A Spring of Joy

Just a couple posts about parenting that blessed, convicted and encouraged me this week, so I’m sharing them here:

This post was a good reminder to consider what I say, how I speak, and how to encourage others in this parenting role. Beautiful and so very true…

Parenting is complicated; it’s wonderful and challenging. Exhausting and gut wrenching. Heart warming and heart breaking.
Joy or “Just Wait?” (by Katie Wetherbee)

I found this one much needed not just because we stand on the cusp of teenage years with our children, but for the every day now as we prepare them for those years…

“We share a fallen nature with our teenagers, and we share progressive growth unto holiness with them. We must not act as if we’re people of a different sort or stand self-righteously above them. We must stand alongside them as the older brother and sister and point them to the only place of hope – Christ. We must communicate that there’s no answer we give them that we ourselves don’t need.”
Setting a Parental Agenda (by Paul Tripp)

This one found my heart saying, “amen,” and my soul longing to be more of Jesus to my children. I have failed so often in this area, and yet His grace is ever present. May I show such grace to my children as I teach them obedience and pray for them to know Him in Christ.

Since parents represent God to children — especially before they can know God through faith in the gospel — we show them both justice and mercy. Not every disobedience is punished. Some are noted, reproved, and passed over. There is no precise manual for this mixture. Children should learn from our parenting that the God of the gospel is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:7, 29) and that he is patient and slow to anger (1 Timothy 1:16). In both cases — discipline and patience — the aim is quick, happy, thorough obedience. That’s what knowing God in Christ produces.
Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children