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“Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,”
- Proverbs 1:8

One of the most difficult tasks any of us can be assigned is to parent a child. I remember when our first child was born over 21 years ago; along with the excitement of the moment there was also a growing sense of apprehension about the enormous task that I had just entered into. It rolled in like a high tide, threatening at times to drown me in it’s demands.

But we settled into it over the next few months. We learned first how to keep our daughter alive! But the task soon becomes much more complex as this little life develops before your eyes and all of a sudden you get to meet a small person with their own personality, charm and, of course, their own unique way of sinning.

That children are little sinners should not be a surprise to any of us. From the very beginning they are almost always much more interested in their own desires than those of others. That rapidly becomes a competition for resources, whether it be the cookies in the jar of the attention of an adult. The job of a parent includes teaching our children the self-control that they need – how to say no to their own selfishness for so many beneficial reasons and to say yes to good things. How do we go about this?

It's tempting to simply tell them what to do and then to enforce their behaviour. It’s certainly true that discipline is good for a child but is that the whole of it? In our Family of God sermon series we’ve been exploring how our understanding of the gospel (especially as it’s communicated in the Scriptures to us in the language and categories of our different relationships) shapes how we behave in those very same relationships. This must surely also be true of how we relate to our children!

If God is our heavenly father and we therefore his children, what difference does that make to how we raise our own children? Well, how does God “raise” us? He showers us with grace! He is generous to us when we don’t deserve it. He is also forgiving when we don’t deserve it and uses his grace towards us as the most powerful motivation that we know. Yet when it comes to our children sometimes we forget that this is such a powerful tool! Grace does not simply overlook wrongdoing – it actually acknowledges the depth of it. But Grace also restores and longs for better and provides the very best environment in which to do better.

This Sunday we have Steve Dinning from Anglicare with us to help us think through what this means for us in the different ways we are involved in parenting – whether we are parents right now (of whatever age children), or we may be parents in the future, or we simply want to support parents that we know and love. Our free seminar on Sunday runs from 1pm-4pm and it’s not too late to sign up to join us!

As we learn together to live out the gospel in our relationships will you join us for this immensely practical time?

David Ould
Senior Associate Minister

 

Pray for grace-filled parenting and the next generation

Give thanks for the grace-filled way that God parents his children, generously forgiving and powerfully transforming them through his love. Ask God for wisdom, patience, and joy for those currently parenting, and for all who support and shape the next generation. Ask God to help them reflect his character as they raise their children, showing grace that acknowledges sin, restores relationship, and provides the best environment for growth.