Here is the plan for the last four weeks of the Parenting Class: Pray, Read, and Plan
April 27: Pray
Several months ago, Pastor Brett challenged the church to pray using the acronym PRAY.
Praise: Focus on who God is: holy, loving, protector, provider, just, merciful
Psalm 100:1-3, 115:1
Praise Help: Use the alphabet to review God's attributes.
Repent: Acknowledge your sins and ask for forgiveness. Repent of general sin (I need to be more patient) or specifically (I yelled at the kids yesterday).
This class will be helpful whether you are an avid reader, a reluctant reader, or not a reader at all.
Whether you have been in class every week or you haven’t been to any class, plan to come and learn about and share resources.
I love my church, and I don’t mean the building. I mean the people! I want them to grow in the truth of God’s word. In our media-saturated culture, we are being bombarded with so many ideas. The blatantly anti-Christian ones are easy to avoid. But the subtle, almost Biblical ones slowly change one’s thinking.I don’t want any of us to be deceived by the philosophies of this age. As one of your pastors, I also have the God-given responsibility to help you grow in godliness.
Lit! is a great resource book with chapters on tips for reading, Christian imagination, raising readers, and marking up your books.
In the chapter "Read With Resolve," Reinke gives six priorities for his reading:
Read Scripture
Read to know and delight in Christ
Read to kindle spiritual reflection
Read to initiate personal change
Read to pursue vocational excellence
Read to enjoy a good story
After reading the Scripture, every other type of reading should be done in light of Scripture.
This doesn’t mean you should only read Christian books; he explains some benefits of reading non-Christian books. These include highlighting common life experiences, exposing the human heart, capturing beauty, and begging questions that can only be resolved in Christ.
Reinke also has a chapter titled "Raising Readers." Here are the tips, and each is expanded on in the book.
Fill your home with books.
Read to your kids.
Don’t stop reading to your kids.
Read your books in front of your kids.
Teach young children to read.
Push entertainment into the background.
Listen to audiobooks in the car.
Hunt for the best books.
Anticipate new books.
Celebrate the classics.
Cultivate your child’s moral imagination.
Help interpret worldviews as you read to your children.
Read your favorite excerpts to your children.
Invite your children to read to the family.
Challenge your children to improve books.
Most importantly, read the Bible together as a family.
How you pray and what you read as a family obviously depends on the age of your children. We will talk about what is appropriate at different age levels.
In communicating and disciplining our children, we don't want to only stress rules, correction, and punishment. Our communication needs to include rebuke, entreaty, instruction and prayer.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 shows us this communication should be all the time and everywhere.
Most fundamentally, this communication should be Scripture (Psalm 119:105; Hebrews 4:12). We should not just quote Bible verses. We must help our children learn how to apply scripture to life at every opportunity.
Why do we do this? To get to the heart of our children. But we need to remember that we cannot change anyone's heart.
Even without a heart change, there are times when we need to work with our children and their behavior, even if their hearts are still in process.
Obedience is the willing submission of one person to the authority of another.
Ephesians 6 gives commands to children to obey their parents and parents to help their children do this.
Here are two helpful video lessons on Ephesians 6:1-4.
Do Obedient Children Always Live Long?
Fathers Aim at Trusting, Obedient, Happy Children.
Obedience is all the way, right away, with the right heart attitude.
Parents, we need to remember the following in parenting.
Consistency, threat with no consequences vs. commands with real consequences
Same standard, not mom vs. dad
Training, reactive vs proactive
Encouragement - reinforce positive behavior
Discernment, every family and every child is different
Graciousness - be thoughtful when asking children to obey
