This is the Work of God
Here's the formula we're most at ease with: Good parenting in, good children out.
Seeking to be faithfully obedient parents is our responsibility; granting faith to our children is His. Freedom to love and enjoy our children flows out of the knowledge that God saves them in spite of our best efforts, not because them. Salvation belongs to the Lord!
We're concerned about parents who carry on their shoulders the entire burden for their kids' salvation and lifelong happiness. We were never meant to carry the ultimate responsibility or anyone's soul:neither our own nor our children's. Only the Good Shepherd is strong enough to carry a soul-that's his job, nor ours. And although this kind of committed parenting appears godly, it is nothing less than works righteousness and idolatry.
We are not nor can we be the savior's of our children. He is the Savior. When we forget this, our parenting will be pockmarked by fear, severity, and exhaustion.
He loves flooding our consciences with the peace that comes from knowing our sins are forgiven and our standing before him is completely secure. When we're quietly resting in grace, we'll have grace to give our children too. When we're freed from the ultimate responsibility of being their Savior, we'll find our parenting burden becoming easy and light.
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