A Prayer About Gospel Parenting
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat-for the grants sleep to those he loves. Sons are a heritage from the Lord (the Lord’s inheritance), children a reward from him. Psalm 127:1-3
Heavenly Father, I am so thankful to be able to address you today as the architect and builder of your own house… including the household of faith and my children’s place in your family. As I look back over the years of my performance-based pragmatic parenting, I am saddened, but I am also gladdened, for you have always been faithful to your covenant love, even when I was clueless. The move from parenting by grit to parenting by grace has been a fitful but fruitful journey. Take me deeper, take me further.
You have rescued me from “laboring in vain”-assuming a burden you never intended me to bear. Father, only you can reveal the glory and grace of Jesus to our children. Only you can give anyone a new heart. You have called us to parent as an act of worship-to parent “as unto you,” not as a way of saving face, making a name for ourselves, or proving our worthiness of your love.
Oh the arrogant pride of thinking that by my “good parenting” I can take credit for what you alone have graciously done in the lives of my children. Oh the arrogant unbelief of assuming that by my “bad parenting” I have forever limited what you will be able to accomplish in the future. Oh the undue pressure our children must feel when we parent more out of our fear than by your love.
Since our children, and grandchildren, are your inheritance, Father, teach us… teach me how to care for them as a humble steward, not as an anxious owner. More than anything else, show me how to parent and grandparent in a way that best reveals the unsearchable riches of Jesus in the gospel. Convict me quickly and surely when I do not relate to your covenant children “in line with the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:14). So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ name.
