Parenting as God’s Ambassadors

Parenting is an adventure that changes every time you turn around.  Our grown children now range in ages from 28 to 24 to 22—how did that happen?  It was just yesterday we were all gathered around the cassette tape player singing “Baby Beluga” along with Raffi (go google it—you’ll love this song!)  And now they’re all 20-something?

At thegospelcoalition.org, Melissa Kruger interviews Paul Tripp about his new book, Parenting:  14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family.  Our children grow and change, and we live in swiftly changing times.  How can parents get their bearings?  Consider:

• We don’t own our kids.  Christian parents are God’s ambass­adors to their children:  “Their job is to represent the purposes, char­acter, and methods of God.  So they constantly ask:  What does God desire in the lives of my children, and how can I be part of it?”
• About this ambassador model:  “Parents embrace their complete inability to change the hearts and lives of their kids.  They recog­nize their role as instruments in the hands of the One who alone has the power to create lasting change.”  (This makes me recall 1 Corinthians 3:6, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.)
• On busy-ness:  “You simply can’t squeeze a biblical model of parenting into a frenetic schedule shaped by the world’s view of what a successful child looks like….  Are you giving your­self the time necessary to build and maintain a rela­tionship of love?  Are you setting aside time for family worship?  Is there time to share relaxed moments and discuss what’s truly important in life?”  Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
• It’s not your job to secure the ultimate well-being of your child.  Trust the Father:  he loves you—and them.  Don’t fall into angst-driven parenting, piling on demands, fretting over your children’s performance.  Rest in God’s grace—and reflect it to your kids:  Grace acknowledges wrong as wrong, “but instead of moving away from a person in criticism, judgment, and condem­nation, grace moves toward them with forgiveness, tender instruc­tion, loving correction, and the patient exercise of authority.”