Parenting Your Child's Heart -- Not Just Their HeadSample

Godliness Requires Growth

Sometimes, parenting can seem like a never-ending list of to-do’s that feels impossible to accomplish. Because of this, the easiest thing for many parents to do is often nothing at all.

Instead of doing what’s best, we find ourselves caving to what’s convenient. Instead of doing hard things, we find ourselves settling into what’s most comfortable.

But because, as we learned yesterday, godliness is our goal (1 Timothy 4:8), this requires that we continue to grow rather than become stagnant.

2 Peter 3:18 reminds us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”

Godly parenting that reaches the heart, not just the head, involves developing some important spiritual characteristics. Are you willing to commit to these things?

Godly parents are growing parents.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” Paul understood that in the areas he was lacking, he needed the help of God and others in his life.

Godly parents understand this, too. It’s not about knowing all the answers but about knowing the sources to find them and a willingness to act upon what you learn.

Godly parents are grace-based parents.

2 Peter 3:18 helps us see that growing in our “knowledge of Jesus Christ” and becoming more like him will help us become more godly.

Grace-based parents aren’t perfect parents, but they are parents striving to live out the Gospel in front of their kids. We love. We mess up. We forgive, sometimes on repeat.

Godly parents are God-like parents.

Godly parenting is rooted in the foundational understanding of who God is as your father. In Proverbs 3:12 it reminds us that “The Lord loveth… even as a father the son.”

Throughout Scripture, God has given us the pattern of what it looks like to be the perfect God-like parent, and it’s himself, through the way he parents us as his children. We can succeed because we have the perfect example to follow.

Prayer: God, help me to realize the success of my parenting starts with me, not my children. As I grow in grace to become more like you, I will succeed at reaching my child’s heart, just as you have succeeded at reaching mine.

Tomorrow, the wisest man to ever live is going to tell us why reaching the heart over the head matters so much.