It’s the midweek, newsletter friends! How is this week shaping up? Staying warm?
This “4 the Fam” email is designed to be short, valuable, and actionable. Read it quick. Act on it with energy!
Your family is worth the work!
1 Principle
Several years ago, we were in the throes of parenting 3 kids under 6 years old.
In a flustered fit of confusion and frustration, I spent several hours researching all the passages in the Bible I could find about parenting.
I wanted to know what God said about how I should parent my children.
And I left that time even more frustrated than when I started.
During that time, I realized that the Bible actually doesn’t say a lot about how I should parent my children.
Some time passed, emotions dwindled a touch, and I had some space to get quiet and listen…
No, the Bible doesn’t lay out a manual for perfect parenting — but it does say a lot about how God parents us perfectly.
He really loves us, cares for us, provides for us, protects us, guides us, shapes us.
He creates our world, enters our world, models our world, redeems our world, and empowers us to love our world (the people in it).
I could go on and on about our Perfect Parent, but the Bible lays it out better than I could ever attempt.
This week, make the space in your schedule (and mind and heart) to acknowledge that the Father wants to help you parent your children as best as you can with His perfect love — not your “perfect” process.
1 Practice
“Enter their world” → Aware of the age and life-stage of your child(ren), create a purposeful, organic time you can “enter their world.” Some examples —
Get on the floor and build legos, creating a scene with characters and fun drama.
Take a moment to look through the items on your 9 year old’s bedside table or dresser — at what their eyes and hands have been focusing on the last day or so. Ask them to catch you up on the book they’re looking through or the toy they’ve been tossing around.
Ask your teen (nonchalantly) about what’s going on in their closest friend’s life. You may be surprised what topics come up that their friend-group is walking through — and then how that opens up a convo about their personal life.
1 Prompt
How is your view of God as Heavenly Father be shaping your life as a parent to your kids?
1 Passage
"Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." — Isaiah 64:8
Pray for your family leadership this week:
Father — show me more clearly today that I am the clay and You are the Potter, shaping my heart as I parent my children. Help me exchange my striving for a "perfect process" for Your perfect love. Amen.
By the way…
If this was helpful and your spouse would benefit from reading the same thing — or you want to encourage a friend, family member, coworker — please forward it along to them!
If you need help organizing some main areas of family life — please check out The 7-Day Family Reset:
It’s a free email course that walks you through simplifying 1 area of your family life each day for 1 week.
To my friends/family in Texas and Tennessee, hoping you all stayed safe and as warm as possible the last several days!
