We are all formed by our family up-bringing. When we have children of our own it causes us to do a lot of soul searching.
My dad grew up without his dad. Right after high school he enlisted in the Navy, fought in the Korean War, and stayed in the Navy for 30 years. Our home was very militaristic, disciplined, and hard. I never heard “I love you” or experienced any tenderness from dad. He never came to my swim meets, baseball games, or band concerts.
Mom’s home was also cold and distant. As I was growing up she did her “momly duties” as quick as she could and then went out with her girlfriends.
A week before I graduated from high school, dad announced he was walking out on mom and the woman two doors down was going to walk out on her husband and they were going to get together. That announcement devastated me. Up to that point it seemed my dad, though not a Christ-Follower, had lived a very moral life. This was such a “left turn.” Mom withdrew and adopted an “oh well” perspective.
The impact on me was I became an angry, lost man. Actually I was craving love and acceptance, but I covered it with discipline and aloofness, like my parents.
Mercifully God brought me to Himself during my freshman year at college. Friends discipled me and helped me mature in Christ. He transformed me and then called me to minister with The Navigators. At my first assignment Kathy and I met and within 13 months we were married.
After Kathy and I married and we had our first child, David, I realized that since I had come from a broken, harsh home, I needed her help as we raised our children. I did not want our children to experience what I had experienced. But I had no idea what to do.
One night Kathy and I were lying in bed talking about David; he was our 18-month-old first born. She told me, “Steve, I have a Masters in Child Development and know what the world has to say about raising kids, but I have no idea what the Bible has to say.” I said, “Well, thank you very much!” That began our quest of looking at the Bible for ideas on raising our children. We focused on the Book of Proverbs and any other passage of scripture we knew of. We underlined any verse that spoke to us about raising children and noted our thoughts from that verse. After 6 months we had several convictions about how we felt God wanted us to raise our children. These convictions formed the basis for how we raised our four children.
Most parents want to do their best for their children. They will read books, read blogs, view videos, etc., all which claim to be based on the Bible. But most parents have not looked at the Bible itself to gain what God might have for them in raising their children.
This Parenting Group with help you do this – dig into scripture, interact with God and others, and come up with some observations and applications for raising your children.
Written by Steve Brown
If you would like to sign up for the class, visit the table in The Gathering Place or sign up online.
Registration deadline is January 6, 2019