From Control to Influence / From Diapers to Diapers

I don't wanna have permanent control of my kids. I want to have a lifelong connection. I want to allow my children to grow and know that my role in their life is ever changing. I want to influence and teach them and point them. As they mature, they do need to hear my voice. They need to know that I'm in their corner. They need to know that my door is always open. And eventually, as we stand side by side walking through life together, they have the presence and we have the same goals. [00:25:39] (47 seconds)  #ParentingForLife

If our children are are only ever coddled and and and living in this bubble wrapped society, they don't experience moments in their life where they they see that not everything is perfect and they fail. And we show them how to stand back up and to continue taking that next right step. If we don't allow them to fail while they're with us, they're going to fail later on and they will be unprepared to take those next steps. [00:17:32] (41 seconds)  #RaiseResilience

he didn't push him back down, he didn't he didn't say to him, well, if you had just done the things that I had asked, then none of this would have happened. You'd have eaten just fine all this whole time. Your inheritance would still be there and growing. We would have been a stronger family. He didn't ridicule him. He didn't put him down. He welcomed him home. He threw a party for him. He allowed him to fail and he was there to help him when he came back home. [00:14:03] (41 seconds)  #GraceWelcomesHome

I don't want my children to think that I'm their best friend. I want them to understand that I have guided them into a relationship with Christ and someone who can make healthy decisions for themselves. And have I fully entrusted my child to God? Allow him to lead and guide their story that they, as I have chosen for myself, that they will choose to be a follower of Christ. [00:25:07] (32 seconds)  #EntrustToGod

Our children might parent differently than we parented. Our children might struggle spiritually. While our children may become different, can we maintain relationship? Can we hold convictions of our own desires and let our children be different people than we are and yet still maintain healthy relationships with them? We can disagree even with our own children without disconnecting from them. [00:21:01] (45 seconds)  #LoveBeyondDifferences

See, our goal of of being a parent, our goal of of raising our families is not to create children that are dependent on us. Some of us desire to have our children need us, But our goal is not to raise children that are just dependent on who we are, but our goal is to raise them as mature adults, adults who can stand up on their own will, all while remaining in relationship with our children even though that changes. [00:01:45] (40 seconds)  #RaiseIndependentAdults

But nonetheless, we had the opportunity to leave our parents' homes and build into ourselves a new union that is a husband and a wife. We leave our parents' homes and we become changed from that. This this construct of a family was not a permanent dependence, And it's up to us as the parent to have this goal of building our children up to where they can make good decisions on their own. But failure is a part of life. [00:06:59] (46 seconds)  #FromHomeToMarriage

But he sees what I do on a weekly basis and he wants to be like his dad. Not because he understands what we're doing up here in the music, not because he even knows how to play a ukulele, not because he understands that the purpose of being on this platform is to lead people to God. He doesn't understand those things yet, but he understands that this is what my dad does and I want to be like my dad. And me as the parent, I want to look like Christ so that he wants to look like Christ as a result. [00:23:02] (43 seconds)  #LeadByExample