Want advice on parenting? A quick search at Amazon.com for books on parenting will give you over 40,000 titles to chose from - each book promises to help you become a successful parent. You can learn how to enjoy scream-free parenting, how to avoid conflict by being a playful parent, how to be a positive parent or an unconditional parent, or you can even be a clinically-proven parent who can solve your kids' problems in just five weeks.
The bottom line (as we all already know) is that there are no five easy steps to perfect parenthood. Even if we were given a perfect plan, we still wouldn't get it right because we are imperfect people raising imperfect children. There is just too much sin on everyone's part to hope for perfection.
So if we have already been disqualified from being perfect parents, what can (and should) we hope for? Is it good enough to just be "good" parents? Well, that is certainly better than being bad parents - but it is not the best that we can or should shoot for. And, in fact, being good parents can at times hinder us from becoming what we should be: gospel-centered parents.
It is a strange idea to some that being good can in fact get in the way of God's work in our lives, but it is true. Christians are unique in the world's religions because we not only repent of the bad we do - we also repent of our good, knowing that when we become self-satisfied with our "good," our pride shuts us off from God's best.
As parents, we must not only admit that we screw up sometimes, but that our "good" just isn't good enough. It is the basic acknowledgment that we just don't have what it takes to do this right on our own. We simply cannot afford to allow ourselves to become comfortable with our parenting (or defensive of our weaknesses). The gospel leads us to acknowledge that even at our best, we are still more broken than we dare imagine.
The good news, though, is that the gospel also leads us to see that we are more loved and empowered in Christ than we dare hope. When we get comfortable in our parenting (or defensive of our weaknesses), we allow our pride to undercut our ability to live in the power of the gospel with our kids. As we move forward in the humble confidence of the gospel, it doesn't make us perfect parents - but it does make us redemptive parents.
That is, after all, what the gospel is all about. It is about God reclaiming what has been lost and making it his own. It is about God taking what was ruined and making it new again. It is about God doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. We need to be gospel-centered parents.
There are numerous practical applications of these principles, and future Milestones blogs will explore practical applications of what it means to be gospel-centered parents.
The bottom line (as we all already know) is that there are no five easy steps to perfect parenthood. Even if we were given a perfect plan, we still wouldn't get it right because we are imperfect people raising imperfect children. There is just too much sin on everyone's part to hope for perfection.
So if we have already been disqualified from being perfect parents, what can (and should) we hope for? Is it good enough to just be "good" parents? Well, that is certainly better than being bad parents - but it is not the best that we can or should shoot for. And, in fact, being good parents can at times hinder us from becoming what we should be: gospel-centered parents.
It is a strange idea to some that being good can in fact get in the way of God's work in our lives, but it is true. Christians are unique in the world's religions because we not only repent of the bad we do - we also repent of our good, knowing that when we become self-satisfied with our "good," our pride shuts us off from God's best.
As parents, we must not only admit that we screw up sometimes, but that our "good" just isn't good enough. It is the basic acknowledgment that we just don't have what it takes to do this right on our own. We simply cannot afford to allow ourselves to become comfortable with our parenting (or defensive of our weaknesses). The gospel leads us to acknowledge that even at our best, we are still more broken than we dare imagine.
The good news, though, is that the gospel also leads us to see that we are more loved and empowered in Christ than we dare hope. When we get comfortable in our parenting (or defensive of our weaknesses), we allow our pride to undercut our ability to live in the power of the gospel with our kids. As we move forward in the humble confidence of the gospel, it doesn't make us perfect parents - but it does make us redemptive parents.
That is, after all, what the gospel is all about. It is about God reclaiming what has been lost and making it his own. It is about God taking what was ruined and making it new again. It is about God doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. We need to be gospel-centered parents.
There are numerous practical applications of these principles, and future Milestones blogs will explore practical applications of what it means to be gospel-centered parents.
Comments