Sacred Parenting

Drew finally comes home tomorrow after being gone all week long! Jed and I are both so ready to have him back...we've really missed him. While he's been gone I've had a stand-in bed partner - a really incredible book called Sacred Parenting by Gary L. Thomas. The book is a must-read for every parent...it is not a how to parent book, but rather talks about how being a parent shapes us spiritually. Without realizing it, I actually kind of tackled the topic a couple nights ago when I blogged on how I'm beginning to understand 'God as parent' due to being a parent myself. Here is an excerpt from the first chapter:

When we realize that having children isn't about us but is rather about God, then the trials and sacrifices of parenting are more easily borne. We see the purpose behind the difficulty, and we remind ourselves, "This isn't about me; it's about him." The ultimate issue is no longer how proud my children make me, but how faithful I've been to discharge the duties God has given me. To pin our hope and joy on the response of any given sinner is a precarious move at best. To pin the same hope and joy on the response of a sinner in his or her toddler years or teen years is to beg for disillusionment and to risk waking up in despair.

The chapter goes on to explain the difference between "child-centered parenting" - acting nice toward your children as long as your children act nicely towards you, and "God-centered parenting" - acting out of reverence for God, regardless of how your children react. I know this is something I will struggle with because I have always struggled with it in all of my other relationships. I'm praying that recognizing and fighting this in parenting will be one way God works to purify me in other areas of my life...

So, I'm in chapter 3 now and each chapter just keeps getting better...and keeps getting more and more into the heart of things that I am already struggling with as a parent or things that I know I will struggle with in the not-so-far-away future. I'm excited to see how God's going to use parenting to refine me.

If you're interested, there's another book by the same author called Sacred Marriage that is absolutely incredible also - his main supposition is "What if God designed marriage more to make us holy than to make us happy?" Imagine what the difficult times would be like if we viewed our marriages from this perspective!