This book is hands-down the best thing I could have ever done for my oh so weak and struggling heart that needs Jesus on a hourly basis. Why?
Well, it is not a parenting book that says, "If you do (fill in the blank), then you will have successful children. Or if you do (fill in the blank), then your parenting will save your children's souls. Or if you do (fill in the blank), then your children will be obedient, Godly children." It is just the opposite.
It is a great reminder to me as a mom and to me as a sinner, that me and my children need Jesus. We need the grace of Jesus. We don't need to trust in self-righteousness to do ANYTHING! It reminds me that no matter how much I screw up on a daily basis or how much I happen to get things right, God is still the sovereign God orchestrating all things according to His will. It reminds me that my children's salvation is not based upon my awful works or my tainted good works!
A couple of quotes from the book:
1. This comes from a chapter discussing our weakness in parenting and His strength. "Our weakness is the place where we learn to depend on his power. When we're stripped of everything that we thought we could trust in, when we're absolutely desperate for help, the Lord moves into our circumstances and demonstrates his power. Sometimes he shows us his power by changing the circumstance, miraculously accomplishing what we could never accomplish. At other times he shows us how his sustaining grace enables us to endure situations that otherwise would crush us. Sometimes he makes us feel his strengthening arm upholding us in the trial. At other times he teaches us to walk by faith, believing that his arm is there even though we don't feel it. It is in these varied circumstances that we learn of his greatness, his sustaining grace, and his ability to glorify himself in way we would never have imagined."
2. "Paul's command to 'bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord' means this: that parents are to think about and remember Jesus Christ and then train their children to understand how everything in their life-their joys and sorrows, their trials and labors, their doubts, sin, and shame-is to be understood and approached in the light of Jesus Christ."
Basically, I could quote this entire book. It is amazing. I highly recommend it. Not because reading it will make you a better mom but because it points to the the One who is the PERFECT parent and it points to the One whom we need to trust in for ALL things!
I believe that we are so quick to fall into self-reliance when we are parenting. We have "game-time" decisions that need to be made and often think and act before we speak. We too often trust in ourselves with no mention or thought of Christ.
In the introduction, Fitzpatrick and Thompson challenge you with this: You're a Christian Parent BUT is your parenting Christian?
Read it... and ask the Lord to reveal Himself through your parenting.
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