Take it Home Newsletter - Fall 2011
Scripture Encourages Parents
“He gently leads those who have young.” Isaiah 40:11b
“Talk about them (God’s commandments) when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” - Deuteronomy 6:7
Prayer Ideas
To cultivate a spirit of thankfulness in your home, try a “praise only” prayer night. This is when the family gathers and instead of asking God for things, each person prays their thanks to the Lord for who He is or what He has done. Thankfulness could be your family theme for the month of November.
Resources
- For Parents:Faith Begins At Home by Mark Holmen, Amazon $10 Faith Begins At Home Devotions by Mark Holmen, Amazon $7
- For Younger Children: Bible Heroes (Bible Search and Find), Amazon $4.50
- For the whole family (great family gift): Gabbit: Family Faith Edition by Group Publishing– family game, Amazon $19.99
Our Calling as Parents
Kids are worshippers. Our very identity dictates worship. And it has been said that we all worship something. In our fallen state, we worship “self” and will do almost anything to protect it. Yet, Christ in us (“we are a new creation” – 2 Corinthians 5:17) moves worship off of “self” and toward Jesus, our savior and redeemer. Because Jesus has bought us back, we are now free to worship Him. (2 Corinthians 5:15 - “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”)
Kids are also revelation receivers.
Our aim as parents is to unveil the revelation that God has given to us through His Holy Word. If kids are in awe of God, then they will pay attention to His Word, the Bible. We can guide them by modeling daily Bible reading and enthusiastically reading the Bible to and with our kids. As they mature in age and in faith, they can read the Word on their own, and family times might migrate more from being teaching times to community worship times.
Third, kids are interpreters. They respond to their interpretation of the facts, not necessarily the facts themselves. If they see a spider, for example, some may respond with fear, others with curiosity. They have interpreted the existence of the spider using their own grid or view of the world. We help shape how they interpret life. We also can help them apply God’s word to their own circumstances. How? By asking questions such as, “What would Jesus do in this situation? Or “What does God’s Word say regarding this subject? Or "How do you think Jesus would view this circumstance?”
As God gives us children, we begin to understand that God also supplies the wisdom to raise them. And he sets desires and goals in our hearts for what they might become. What is our primary goal as parents of a pre-schooler? of a teen? of a college-age son or daughter? The age of our children almost doesn’t matter. In all cases, God has called us as parents to point our children to the one, true and living God, Jesus Christ and to encourage worship. The place children primarily learn to be God-worshippers is in the home. And as parents, we are first learning what it means to worship God ourselves, and then we transmit this love of God to our children.
The family, then, is the primary community where truth is received, where the world is examined and interpreted, and where kids see their own hearts. Our calling (and blessing) as a parent is primarily in this realm. “Train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6a) means to stay in there with him or her when the going is rough, always searching to know the child’s heart. It means to apply God’s Word to the daily struggles of life and to depend daily on the strength of Christ which is undergirding us. It means to abide in continual relationship with Jesus ourselves in full view of our children, being transparent regarding our shortcomings and in our claiming of the grace which is ours. In this they shall see the reality of Christ playing out in life (there may be no better testimony from us than this).
Last, as parents we need to not take the survival mentality, but rather see the opportunity God has given us. We can encourage these children who God has specifically put in our homes to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.
A Note to Parents of Teens
- Pray for them.
- Ask God to help you identify issues or areas where they may struggle.
- Pray some more.
- When opportunity arises to talk with them, open the conversation. Fear not! With a calm voice speak with love and grace.
- Pray again!
- Point them toward the long view. Parents should function as the instrument of seeing what the teenager isn’t seeing that God wants him or her to see.
- You got it, pray and be thankful.
- God will restore relationships. Heart change takes place by God in His time.
These thoughts were taken from the “Getting to the Heart of Parenting” conference by Paul Tripp (with a few liberties taken). To learn more about Paul Tripp ministries, go to paultrippministries.org. A DVD series based on this conference is available in the FBC library and is currently being viewed by the FBC Family in Focus Community group.
