So, in my limited experience of almost 3 years, I am NOT going to write some instructional post on parenting. The Lord has been teaching me so much on the issue lately, though, so I thought I would share.

I love to teach, and I have always looked at mothering as teaching your children, whether it be their letters or about the Lord. Through several different sources lately, God has been showing me that parenting is as much (if not more) about modeling than it is about teaching. I was listening to some MP3s from a previous parenting conference at our church, and our pastor shared an old saying. He said, “children may rarely do what you say, but they will rarely fail to do what you do.” Can I say, CONVICTING?!?

It’s not that I thought I had ‘arrived’ and had dealt with all of my issues, but I had been putting my primary focus on how to teach my girls Biblical truths, rather than making sure I was still working on my own faults. I have realized that if I don’t deal with my insecurities, it doesn’t matter how much I ‘teach’ my children about being secure in their identity in Christ. What they are going to end up learning is that if you don’t look a certain way, you don’t have any reason to be secure in yourself. That is the absolute last thing in the world I want my girls to believe, but I know that if they see that in me, they will follow suit.

So…not only is there all this stuff to learn about parenting, shepharding and discipling our children, but also we have to get (and keep) our own personal issues in check. When I start to get overwhelmed with this awesome responsibility, the Lord reminds me that thankfully, it isn’t up to me and my own power to change. As long as I surrender to the Spirit’s work in my life, my heavenly Father will do the work.

Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith……” (emphasis mine)