Sacred Parenting

I am sitting in a room that brings a smile to my face.  It has the bones of a baby's room.  As I rock in a chair I'm prepared to spend many nights soothing, cuddling and snoozing, I am looking back through a book that has encouraged my soul for what's to come.  Gary Thomas' Sacred Parenting spoke to my heart just as his Sacred Marriage did 6(!) years ago.  I'd like to share a few, or more, quotes that encouraged, challenged or strengthened my heart.  I filled several pages in my journal with quotes from the book.  I will try not to fill this post with as many.

-"In what we stress with our children, we reveal the true passion of our own hearts."
-"If they never sin but are only 'sick;' if they never 'fail' but just get 'cheated'...they will never sense their need for a Savior."
-"If God allowed his own Son to suffer...we can expect times when we will have to watch our children suffer for the greater good."
-"We are shepherding image bearers of the Creator God who live with freedom of choice, their own wills and a personal responsibility of their own."
-"It is my job to model my own need for God's mercy and to demonstrate how God can use even sinful people to accomplish his aims."
-"Prayers of thankfulness have added a new dimension to my parenting.  I try to thank God for my kids more than I ask God to change them."
-"Yes you would die for that child, but God already has. No one feels that child's pain more than God himself."
-"Parenting-even sacred parenting- comes with no guarantees."
-"You must become what you are praying _______ to become."

Matthew 25:35-36, 40 "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'...And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'"

Here's to parenting on my knees...

Memory Verse #12

But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. Matthew 15:18, NIV

I'm linking you to a blog article that really spoke to me this week.  This was challenging to me personally in my own heart, but also as I look to a new season of parenting.  I pray I parent my children with the wisdom and gospel-pointed love shown here.  

Parenting on my knees, as I say!

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-gospel-cure-for-a-child-s-heart-and-our-own

Memory Verse #11

"My heart and flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:26, NIV

After saying "see you soon" to another grandparent, one thing resonates with me- God's faithfulness to the generations.  After my Papa's funeral, I wanted to start a family to carry on his legacy.  I have the same yearning after Poppy's.  I hope Nate and I can carry on the legacy of the GENUINE, Christ-following man my Poppy was.  Poppy loved people.  This was not a secret.  His house was always open, and he greeted friends with food, a swim and a good story.  He loved kids.  I loved hearing about how he would get to know the kids on the baseball teams he coached whose parents were not at the games.  He would help them.  I loved hearing how in 20+ years of daddy and my uncle playing youth, high school and college sports, he never missed a game.  I loved hearing how Poppy supported my dad and uncle so they could follow their career goals.  I love the way my dad and uncle love their families.  I know it is because of the example of their father.  I love that he loved my grandmother since grade school, and I love that they were married 59 years and 11 months.

He was the youngest of 5 siblings and the first to pass.  But, even at 80, he's just not the kind of guy I think about being gone.  He was supposed to "coach" the Hey Dad softball games on Sunday and take his buddy to a doctor appointment on Tuesday.  He was also supposed to meet baby girl...  

He would have loved to meet baby girl...I can picture him holding her and singing her a good Southern Gospel song...

I won't forget the countless Cathedral concerts, the nose-plugged Shamu jumps in the pool, rolling my eyes at his stories (and rightly so...I mean, did you hear some of those stories?!), the suspenders, the candy, the kisses on my cheek or watching him watch a game.

Kenzie said it best when he passed, "He's giving Jesus a high-four!"