I come across another well meaning Christian blogger tonight who gave the appearance of having life all (or mostly) figured out. She was in her mid 30′s…
I have a friend about my age (mid 50′s) who is secretly scared to death her son might not be strong enough spiritually as he enters his late teens. I’m on the other side of that whole parenting adventure, (ours are 31 down to 23) I told her, there are no guarantee’s and in spite of the great job they are doing as parents, there is always the real possibility her boy may get into the same “stuff” she did before becoming a Christian. Get used to the idea. That really bugged her out, because she was a pretty “wild child” in her day….
We are setting young Christian parents for major heartache when we imply if we follow certain steps, our kids are all but guaranteed to follow in our steps spiritually.
I don’t think so. In fact, I know so.
Came across an excellent article in the November 5 2011 issue of World Magazine that nailed it on the head. The article was on page 61, it was called “Getting Grace.” Here’s a portion of it:
“…homeschooling dad Reb Bradley is garnering wide attention on Christian blogs. “In the last couple of years,” he began, I have heard from multitudes of troubled home-school parents around the country, a good many of whom were leaders. These parents have graduated their first batch of kids, only to discover that their children didn’t turn out the way they thought they would….Sometime after their 18th birthday they began to reveal that they didn’t hold to their parents values.
….”Most of these parents remain stunned by their children’s choices, because they were fully confident their approach to parenting was going to prevent any such rebellion.”
(Boy can I relate to that feeling of being stunned)
Who doesn’t want to find a parenting system that guarantee’s success? And yet, as some homeschoolers have discovered, such a system doesn’t exist…
….some parents think a move to the country and a lifestyle based on Little House on the Prairie “will transform our children’s hearts.”
(That is exactly what I thought and what we did)
The problem: “It doesn’t.”
…“we’ve stressed outward compliance and obedience. We’ve boiled down the Christian message to “Be nice. Be polite. Don’t hang out with bad people.”
Of course obedience is important.”Respect , courtesy, and civil obedience are blessings from the Lord.” ….but human obedience not motivated by gratitude for God’s grace, is deadlier to the soul that immorality…those who excel at the sort of obedience listed above may not see their need for a Savior; their hearts may be hardened and unfazed by God’s grace….”
For parents who feel they’ve messed up and done everything wrong. Fitzpatrick offers encouragement: I was raised in a secular home. Jessica was raised in a legalistic home.” Yet both of them are believing Christians today: “God uses failures in fantastic ways. It’s not all up to you…the beautiful reality is, your work isn’t going to save your kids. You can relax. You do not know how God will work. Be weak and throw yourself on the mercy of God.”
The essay that started the prairie fire, “Exposing Major Blindspots of homeschoolers. by Reb Bradley @ joshharris.com 09/2011
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