I read recently that we become what we pay attention to (Curtis Thompson).
In any conversation about parenting there’s the danger of paying too much attention to our parenting. To focus on and obsess over how we parent.
But friend – if there is one thing you will take away from this whole series (and from anything else I write) is this:
Focus your gaze and pay attention to Christ himself. There really is no one like him. He is sufficient in every single thing. His abundance surpasses our need by a trillion.
That is why one of the best pieces of advice from my husband is to outsource my parenting to the Lord. Every time I feel deeply my need for grace, or my ignorance, he reminds me to outsource that to the Lord.
My job is not to make myself a good mom – all sufficient and enough. My job is to let the Lord parent through me, and to parent by faith in his sufficiency.
We are not wise, we lack discernment, we have dysfunctional ways of parenting…. And we still have every reason to hope. Our Father is none of those things.
He is mighty to save them, hold their faith, keep them hungry for Himself. And I cling to that. Because I can teach them that it is possible for faith and doubt to coexist, or that we are always living in the tension of joy and sorrow. I can teach them about God and everything He is for us in Christ. We can read the Scriptures and memorize them. But I can’t make them SEE unseen truth. I can’t make them discern spiritual realities. There is only One who can.
This turns my prayers to be:
“Jesus, help me.”
“Speak through me.”
“Love through me.”
“Be patient in me and through me.”
And while we too with Paul ask, “who is sufficient for these things?” we can also say with him,
“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves but our sufficiency is from God.” (2 Cor. 2: 16; 3: 4-6).
As Christian parents, he made us ministers of the new covenant of the Spirit, of the Spirit who alone gives life. Is there something more humbling than this? That we would get to be representatives of the life-giving Spirit of Christ? Christ who is so tender-hearted, who loves children and loves to draw them to himself?
All of Christ’s riches and resources are ours! Let’s fix our attention on him and rejoice.
Aylín Merck 