Parenting

As Christians, we are called to be a different kind of people, people who live in imitation of Christ, people who try to manifest His love in all they do.

This holds true for Christians in parenting roles. We cannot fulfill this or any role the way our society tells us to. When I was growing up, Dr Spock and permissive parenting was the fashion. Too bad too many people bought into it. The wisdom of that age created a generation that believed the world revolved around them.

Making your children feel good is not the goal of Christian parenting. The goal is to raise the next generation of disciples, men and women who are committed to living as committed followers of Jesus Christ. How can we do this in the culture we live in?

Romans 12 gives us the overriding principle: Do not be conformed to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be transformed by Christ.

Deuteronomy adds some practical advice. Impress the teachings of the Lord on your children. How? Talk to them about God’s word when you are hanging out at home. When you are driving somewhere. Work it into casual conversation during your daily life.

Twice in his letters, Paul cautions parents against exasperating or embittering children. How do we balance this idea against effective discipline?

Many people who go through DbD aren’t parents and never have been. How does this week’s topic apply to them?

I’ve never had the privilege of being a mother, but later in life found myself in the role of stepmother to two teenagers. I needed everything I had ever heard about being a Christian parent to help me through the years before the girls moved on. So some people who are not parents now may find this week’s discussion helpful in the future.

Others may think they have never been parents and never will be. But what about nieces and nephews? I have a cousin who never married. After his sister went through a messy divorce, he ended up taking on a fathering role to her children.

And we never know what life will bring. I am now caring for a handicapped niece. Even though she is 36, emotionally she is about 4. A parenting role I never expected has been given to me.

Many of my friends are caring for elderly parents, who because of diseases of aging have become childlike. My friends are becoming parents for their own parents. It’s not the same joyful task of raising a healthy child to adulthood, with the anticipation of what that child will become. But it’s a role of Christ-like service to protect and nurture and to help someone be as much as they can be.

To stretch the point even further, I think back to my days supervising 12 employees. At times I felt like I had 12 children. My role there was to make sure the job got done, but also to teach and to encourage them to develop their professional skills.

Just as the principles of Christian marriage can teach us much about other relationships, so the principles of Christian parenting can help us when we take on roles of authority.