Parenting Seminar

I found the seminar taught by Dr. Stuart Scott to be very helpful and encouraging. I left it with a few takeaways. Specifically, I need to remember that it is not my job to save my children. It is my job to be faithful and it is God's job to save them if it is His will to do so. I think that we naturally have this idea that our children merit God's grace. I know that a part of me thinks like that. However, I know that is no more true for them than it is for me. It is pretty clear that they are sinners who need grace. I pray that God would save them.

There was a challenging aspect to the seminar as well. He raised a good question about prayer. Should children offer petitions to God? It's easy for me to scoff at the unrepentant sinner who prays for God to get them a job, a girlfriend, or through a hangover ("I'll never do this again!"). What is the difference between that and my daughter praying for something or someone? I think a lot of it has to do with how you view Jesus' command to allow the little ones to come to Him. Was He just talking about infants or was He talking about kids? If He was talking about children then where does the so-called "age of accountability" come in to the play? When is it no longer for a child to offer petitions to God?

I don't know if I completely agree with him on this. Lily is a prayer warrior and I really admire that about her. She has a childlike faith. However, I'm not sure that she really understands the gospel. It's so hard to say with someone so young, even if she does seem to be beyond her years sometimes. It is good for her to be in the habit of praying. Every night we give thanks to God for some things and we tell God that we're sorry for what we've done wrong. I think these are good habits.

At any rate, it's all good food for thought. I do know that I am going to keep preaching the gospel to my children as well as to myself. We all need reminders frequently, amen?