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Here are some of my favorite quotes from these chapters:
- Shaping influences are those events and circumstances in a child's developmental years that prove to be catalysts for making him the person he is.
- The person your child becomes is a product of two things. The first is his life experience. The second is how he interacts with that experience.
- Are the values of your home based on human tradition and the basic principles of this world or on Christ?
- You must do all that God has called you to do but the outcome is more complex than whether you have done the right things in the right way. Your children are responsible for the way they respond to your parenting.
- Even a child in the womb and coming from the womb is wayward and sinful. We often are taught that man becomes a sinner when he sins. The Bible teaches that man sins because he is a sinner. Your children are never morally neutral, not even from the womb.
- Remember Proverbs 4:23. Life flows out of the heart. Parenting cannot be concerned only with positive shaping influences; it must shepherd the heart. Life gushes forth from the heart.
- In all of this you must pray that God will work in and around your efforts and the responses of your children to make them people who know and honor God.
{I'm reading using the Kindle App on my iPad, so sorry, no pages numbers.}
These chapters fit so well with what I've been mulling over from Debra Bell's Nuts & Bolts session at Apologia Live. {Don't you just love it when God weaves themes together from multiple sources so you'll get it?} I'm a fairly proactive person. Well, to be honest, I'm a recovering perfectionist. But here's the thing: I cannot control everything no matter hard I want to or think I should.
God's is trying to tell me to back off. He wants me to do my best for my family and my kids, but I cannot control the outcome. My boys have a responsibility to respond to my direction and more importantly to God's direction. I can't force my boys to obey or turn out a certain way.
I have to let go of the burden that I am solely responsible for how my kids turn out.
I am responsible for creating an environment that points to God and guides my kids to Him.
In the end, my children are responsible for how they respond to God and their circumstances.
What were your thoughts on this week's reading? Share in the comments and/or link up a post.
