So, okay. As we continue to pursue Godly parenting we find ourselves asking...What does that mean?! How do we start?! We've been praying and reading the Bible in a desperate attempt to find the right answers. As I type that sentence I realize I have just admitted our ignorance. Isn't that where our search should have started and not ended. I'm going to attempt to chronicle this journey. I hope it will be helpful to my kids someday. They'll be the ones to tell us whether God worked through us as parents or worked in spite of us. I sure hope it's that through us option.
FIRST PARENTING CONCEPT - KIDS ARE PRONE TO BE A WRECK AND THEY NEED GOD
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7
I was listening to a speaker who explained the fear of the Lord very appropriately and his idea on the subject has put a multitude of things into perspective for me. Angie summary is...God is big and good and holy and perfect. Adam and Eve were created. Adam and Eve mess up God's world. Humankind continues to mess up God's world and even goes so far as to kill His son. We are not perfect. Put us next to each other and you've got the true God of the universe and us messed up humans. I don't know about you but I'm a little nervous about how He feels about me if I keep messing up His world. I'm a wreck. Honestly I'm prone to be a wreck and if I'm really honest, when I'm ignoring God, I like being a wreck. I need God to help me stop.
Why would my kids be any different? It's so easy to push them out and see this fragile little human being who is so dependent on you for everything and believe they are innocent and without sin. But any parent who has ever told a two year old no and watched that child blatantly ignore said parent knows...they are not innocent and without sin. SO the first concept I've had to accept is that my children are prone to be a wreck. My husband seems to accept this truth more quickly than I do. As a mother, I don't want to believe it. That's my little baby. But if I am going to raise Godly children I must accept that they are in need of God's love and forgiveness just as I am. They are born with the desire to do wrong. Our response to this concept has been to pray that God would give them an awareness of Him, that God would help us to LOVINGLY show them how prone to sin they are and how much they need Him to be a part of their lives. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, then we want to cultivate in them the fear of the Lord. We aren't sure what this will look like, but we're having some interesting conversations. I'll keep you posted.
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