Parenting With Grace Sample

A Home That Models Grace

A home is the perfect environment to nurture grace. But grace is best caught, not taught. It begins with dad and mom, and becomes a natural expression of love in their children.

A husband models grace by initiating love for his wife. In Genesis 2:24, it is the man who leaves his father and mother and enters an exclusive and permanent covenant relationship of loyalty and intimacy with his wife. His commitment is one of sacrificial love, just as Christ gave His life for the church (Ephesians 5:25).

A wife models grace by responding to her husband’s love. Her submission to his leadership parallels the church’s submission to Christ (Ephesians 5:23–24). The combination of love and submission is a guarantee that God’s grace will be modeled in a home.

A Christian chorus sang:Love is something you do; not only something that you feel…God’s love for the world was demonstrated in Him sending His Son.This gift to the world involved action: Jesus died for my sin. A husband is commanded to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave His life for her. Someone has observed, “If you love your wife enough to die for her, you will love her enough to help with the dishes.” That’s true, but there’s more.

A poignant scene in the movie Fiddler on the Roof takes place between Tevye and his wife Golde. It captures a deep longing when Tevye asks Golde if she loves him. After a long exchange she concludes: “Do I love him? For twenty-five years I’ve lived… fought… starved with him… My bed is his; if that’s not love, what is?”

What a sublime truth! While husbands and wives can show love through things they do for each other, our hearts yearn for a deeper experience.

According to psychologist Robert Sternberg, love has three ingredients: passion, intimacy, and commitment. *Passion may come and go, and commitment will keep a marriage together, but intimacy is the heart of love. Grace brings us into a relationship with God by faith, but the goal of grace is that we have fellowship with God. That is intimacy. That is the pinnacle of Christian experience. Pursue intimacy in your marriage, and you will model God’s grace.

* Les Parrott III and Leslie Parrott, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts: Seven Questions to Ask Before (and After) You Marry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 33–35.