God meets parents with his rescuing and transforming grace. He works to change your heart so that you can become a tool of change in the heart of your child. You can have confidence that God is in you, with you, and for you as you help your child to understand that his or her hope in this life and the one to come is found only in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Realigning Hearts

The ultimate goal of parenting is not behavior management. It is heart realignment. So much of what we need to know and understand about the task of parenting is captured in this passage from Proverbs 22:15:

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

This short proverb is helpful in many amazing ways. Consider the following:

1) When God calls you to parent, you become his tool in the formation of a child he made in his image. This passage makes it clear that what is at stake in parenting is bigger than whether a child will do well at school, get a good job, or have a happy married life. No, what is at stake is the heart of the child. Will your child be rescued from his or her foolishness and live a life shaped by the fear of the Lord?

2) The root problem with your children is not their misbehavior but the condition of their heart. Disobedience, rebellion, and disrespect stem from a heart condition: foolishness. A fool’s world is upside down and inside out. A fool looks at wisdom and sees foolishness, at truth and sees falsehood, and at right and sees wrong. This means that the little one whom you love so much is a natural danger to himself.

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