Thoughtful Thursday: Papa God

Now for a more serious post. If you read my first post, you know that one of the reasons I started this blog was to become a more thoughtful and reflective person. At the beginning of the year I joined a weekly bible study with some girls from our small group at church. We just finished a book called "Sacred Parenting" by Gary Thomas that I loved. So ... I plan to post each week what I learned from the study about "how raising children shapes our souls" (that is the byline of the book-I didn't come up with that myself). Here are a few bullet points from the first chapter:

(1) The process of raising children requires skills that God alone possesses and I am not God.

(2) The genius of children from a spiritual standpoint comes from their helpless state-we are fallen, helpless and in need of someone to pay the price on our behalf and then imbue us with a foreign power to live life the way it was meant to be. Parenting daily reminds me of my need for God.

(3) Having children is not about us-it's about God. He commands us to "bear fruit" and raise children who will love Him and obey his commandments.

(4) We must see parenting as a process through which God purifies us-the parents-even as he shapes our children. If we neglect our own spiritual well-being, our motivations for parenting become polluted. Parenting will lead us to confront spiritual sins that we never knew existed. Paul defines the process of parenting as "perfecting holiness".

(5) A God-centered parent acts out of reverence for God-it doesn't matter how my children respond to me as much as it matters what God has called me to do. When God does not supply our motivation, we may raise courteous, obedient children, but we won't pass on what is of ultimate importance.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. This book has some good stuff in the coming chapters.

"Dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." 2 Corinthians 7:1.