Extraordinary kids often come from extraordinary parents. Not always, but often. Whether you are single or married, have kids or don’t have kids, JP teaches us about the legacy of motherhood, which is really all about discipleship.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
-Live out your faith, and receive grace.
-Faith is caught much more than it’s taught.
-One of the worst things you can do as a parent is bring your kids to church “for them” if you aren’t also going for yourself. That type of hypocrisy will drive them away from the faith.
-What you bring into your home will spread throughout the home. What are you bringing into your home?
-Regardless of your past, you have a home in the church.
-Extraordinary kids are the work of extraordinary grace. Parents often make the mistake of taking too much credit when things go well and too much blame when things go poorly.
-God will often take your past and make it your platform. He takes your mess and makes it your message.
-Let them go, and let them grow.
-Set a spark in your kids’ life and surround them with the fire of Scripture, but then let them go and pray.
-One of the best things you can do as a parent is to let your kids fail and learn from it.
-God’s design is that kids would leave & cleave as they get older.
-Other than the gospel, one of the greatest things you can give your young kids is boundaries. As they get older, that changes to boundaries around you.
-When your kids are younger, you are the driver. As they get older, you become a road sign (a steady, unemotional reminder of the way to go).
-Give the gift that keeps on giving.
-You can’t give your kids the Holy Spirit, but you can give them the gospel.
-Gospel simply means good news. The good news is that God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life you could never live and died the death that you deserve. His death was the perfect payment for your sins.
-Good people don’t go to Heaven and bad people don’t go to hell. Forgiven people, people who trust the payment of Jesus Christ for their sins, go to heaven.
-Husbands and fathers: ask your wife how you can better serve her. Sit on your hands, listen, and then do what she shares with you.
-If you are single, you don’t have to wait to disciple kids. Some of the most influential mothers are not biological.
MENTIONED OR RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
-Suggested Scripture study: 2 Timothy 1:5-7; Philippians 2:19-23; 2 Timothy 3:13-15; Acts 16:1-3; 2 Timothy 1:6; Proverbs 22:6; Genesis 2:24
