Thursday, July 22, 2010

Loving Our Kids on Purpose

I just ordered Loving Our Kids on Purpose from Amazon.com. A dear friend recommended it in passing the other day. So I read a few independent reviews (like this one) yesterday and they were all quite positive. I once read Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel and I loved it, but it didn't give me any practical ideas and left me feeling overwhelmed that I just couldn't pull it off. Supposedly Loving Our Kids on Purpose gives more practical ways to walk out parenting our children with grace.  And don't those 2 cuties deserve it?

A friend had this as her status the other day:
I would say ere on the side of grace. With kids, we think it's so important to teach them the rules and to be like Christ and to do the right things. I think that's important, but it can give a false reflection of Christ. Because Christ wasn't really about rules, as much as He was about relationships. ~Lisa Whelchel (from her book The Facts of Life)
And that's where I want to live … in grace, giving grace … I want grace to permeate every fiber of my being, on the inside and on the outside.  I just have no idea how to do it!  I don't know what it looks like at all.  When I speak I am usually pretty harsh, especially with my girls.  Brandon and I have recently both realized how we can be that way even in just answering simple questions with each other.  We find ourselves apologizing all the time for speaking to one another like the other is an idiot.  I don't want to be that way with anyone, but especially with my children … I want to be gentle and kind, with the fruit of the spirit overflowing out of me.

The same dear friend said this to me the other night:
I don't want my children to have to fight battles that I should have won.
And I feel the same way.  I am fighting battles that I never want them to have to fight, that I want to win in order that they can walk in the grace and freedom and love of Christ.  So … I should receive my new book next Tuesday.  I pray that God uses it to open my eyes even more and teach me how to walk in His perfect love.

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