Tag: Parenting

Entrusting Things to A Trustworthy God

On the day I send kids back to school, God “just so happens” to have me writing up a few Bible study questions on Hannah “lending” or entrusting the son, Samuel, that God had given her (1 Samuel 1:21-28).

Handing over, surrendering, or entrusting things to God isn’t as easy as it sounds. We don’t like to let go of control, even though we ultimately know everything is better in God’s sovereign hands, and even though us having any ounce of “control” is just an illusion.

But entrusting things to God reminds us how vulnerable we, or our kids, truly are. These feelings, or this place of surrender, is typically the last place we want to be, and yet, it’s the very place God knows we need to be. Faith and trust aren’t really needed until these sorts of moments.

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Your Children Are Arrows

Children are a gift from God. We love and treasure them. Children are also sheep needing shepherded. Parents must know, feed, protect, lead, and care for their kids.

But did you know the Bible also describes children as arrows? “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth” (Psalm 127:4). This metaphor gets at the missional aspect of raising a child. God wants us to love and enjoy them but also to train them so they can be missionaries wherever they go. God doesn’t want us to hoard them or shelter them but to release them. Parents think about their kids in terms of what they mean to us or what we want from them and for them, but we often neglect what God intends to do in them and through them.

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Dads: A Few Cautions (Part 2)

Yesterday, Part 1 introduced the temptation for many dads to cross the line from being firm to being harsh. As dads, this is an easy slope to slide down. But it’s not where we want to be. We want to love our kids well and reflect what God the Father looks like, and so we must intentionally be on guard. Here are two additional cautions building on the first.

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Dads: A Few Cautions (Part 1)

I didn’t grow up camping, but as a husband and father, I want to be a family that camps. I love being outdoors and see so many benefits to it. With the ever-present draw of screens and technology, I’m trying to cultivate a stronger joy in nature. In my head, camping with our daughter will lead to memories she will long enjoy. Maybe it will even start a family tradition she can pass on to her kids.

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Disciple Your Kids by Remembering with Them

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.” (Deuteronomy 4:9)

“And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.” (Exodus 13:14)

“There is power in telling our story to our children. At the earliest age, our children can begin to hear parts of our story and to be eyewitnesses to how God is continuing to shape it. I love to tell my children aspects of my own faith story in the context of the age they are at that time.” Michelle Anthony in Spiritual Parenting

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