Parenting ScripturesSample

"Renew Your Mind"

My kids are in a season marked by sibling rivalry. There are days I wake up to the sound of children arguing down the hall. Slowly I pull back the covers and get ready to go another round with my brood. In the moments it takes me to walk from my room to theirs, I bow my heart and silently cry out to the Lord, “What is your will in all of this, God? It’s only 6:14 am, but I’m looking to You for the answers, Lord. What’s the right thing for me do and what’s the right thing for me to say?” 

In our book, Parenting Scripts, Amber Lia and I talk a lot about slowing down to consider the right response before the wrong words flow out of our mouths like hot lava. We encourage moms and dads to “Slow down, sit down, and write down a better response.”

But slowing down, I’ve come to find, isn’t enough. You’ve got to be spending time in the Bible so that your better plan is also a Biblical plan. As I mentioned on the very first day of this series, we don’t want to be swayed by pop-culture in our parenting. We don’t want to be swayed at all. We want to stand firm on the solid teaching of the Scriptures, and allow God’s Word to most influence our words with our children each day. That’s weighty! How can 5 minutes in God’s Word at the crack of dawn trump the other 1,435 minutes we spend in the world? 

If you’re like me, you need a total realignment each day, a fresh cleansing through the washing of the Word, and a new mind each revolution around the sun. In the course of this life, God promises that He will complete what He’s begun in us (Philippians 1:6). If that’s the truth, shouldn’t we look more like Him today than we did yesterday? But How can that be, if we aren’t spending ample time with Him? 

God’s Word transforms us to look more like our Savior and less like ourselves when we crack it open and spend time with Him there.

Let’s be fully devoted to the renewing of our mind in God’s transforming Word, moms, and dads. It is never a waste of time! If you want to respond to sin in your home, like God in his gentleness responds to you, spend time with Him in His Word. If you want to bear the fruit of His Spirit in your home, abide with Him in His Word. If you want to lead your children the way that God in His gentleness leads you, spend time in His Word. If you want to forgive your children for their childishness, the way God has forgiven you…that’s right, spend time in His Word.

Do you want to look more like your Savior and less like yourself? You need ample time with Him. 

This 5-day devotional is inspired by the new book, Parenting Scripts: When What You’re Saying Isn’t Working, Say Something New. For 31 days, Amber Lia and Wendy Speake walk parents through some of the most common family struggles. From bedtime-struggles to teenage defiance, lying, and laziness. One chapter at a time they craft a script for you to try with your children—a script based on the teaching of Scripture. With God’s Word guiding our words, we can do right even when our kids do wrong. Join Amber and Wendy for practical help, and figure out what to say, when what you’re saying isn’t working.