Sacred Parenting

So its been awhile since I posted something and I knew I was long over due. I have been so busy with homeschooling, studying my doula stuff, keeping house, trying to get my Mary Kay buisness going and so many other things I haven't had a chance to sit down and share some of what God has been teaching me these past few weeks. I have been learning many valuable lessons but that one I wanted to share today is from a Bible study I am attending called, "Sacred Parenting".

I dont know how many mothers are like me, but when it comes to my children praying for their safety and protection has always been a top priority. I have never really and truly prayed for their spiritual maturity and character. Sure I have said, "Lord I pray they grow to love and serve you", but that was the extent of my prayers for their spiritual condition. I was too busy focusing on their protection and their comfort in this life. The book, Sacred Parenting, has been an a real eye opener for me and I have only read the first two chapters. One passage that really stuck out to me was this. "If our kids never hurt; if they never sin but are only "sick"; if they never fail but just get "cheated" by an unfair coach, teacher, principal, and so on - they will never sense their need for a savior. They will always take Adam's lame approach, blaming someone else for their own spiritual failing. Yes, it hurts us when our kid's hurt, but it devastates our kids' eternal perspective far more when we hide their need for a savior. Our hardest hurt may actually be their most important hurt. What a tragic loss if the hurt we spare ourselves is bought at the price of our childrens salvation". This passage really spoke volumes to me. I was reminded what the heavenly Father went through when He allowed His son to go through intense suffering and to ultimately die on the cross for the salvation of mankind. How hard as a parent to watch your child suffer, but yet knowing the greater future good choosing not to spare him from the pain and suffering.

Here is the sobering truth that I learned. If God allowed his own Son to suffer - and He is our model as a parent -- we can expect times when we will have to watch our children suffer for a greater good. Its spritiual cowardice to shield our children from difficulty and suffering, the very things that temper us. Romans 5:3 says, "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perserverance; perserverance, character; and character, hope". If we never let our kids face difficult times, they'll never become strong enough to make a difference in a very cruel world.

"We cannot feel unmoved watching our children suffer, yet living in a fallen world ensures that they will. So whats the alternative? We parents can be so conscientious, so concerned, and so seemingly caring that we inadvertantly raise overly soft boys and spoiled girls. Spared from any real pain, kept hidden from real sacrifice, removed from any real sense of loss, they grow up without any sense of the agony Jesus experienced on the cross. And if you remove the cross from Christianity, all that remains is some wise moral teaching not terribly different from any other religion. In the name of sparing our children these difflclties, in reality we are trying to spare ourselves the hurt of seeing them hurt".

I am learning so much and God is revealing so many things to me. I am realizing that sacred parenting calls me to accept the hardest hurt of all -- for the sake of God's kingdom and for the sake of my chilren's own development. I need to allow my kids to face challenges, failure, rejection, and pain, and then teach them how to use these seemingly negative events to fuel their sense of mission and to foster their dependence on God.