Parenting on Purpose

Last night while running I was thinking and praying while listening to some great music from SCC and Passion; which is typically what I do to get my mind off of how tired and hot I am. Over the last year I have thought alot about parenting and the different things Matthew and I do at home with the girls. There is no doubt that the spiritual lessons are the most important and I believe we should be the primary teachers when it comes to biblical principles. Our church's children and youth ministers do an incredibly wonderful job teaching the Gospel and giving them 'the bottom line'; but as parents, it is still our God-given responsibility to 'train them up in the way they should go'...all the while praying that 'and when they get older they will not depart from it'.

What an overwhelming, but incredible opportunity we have to teach these three precious daughters He has given us, for a short time here on earth. I feel like I mess up more than I do the right thing, and so I pray that He gives me wisdom to parent them each with what they need. Each one is so amazingly different....seems obvious because they each come from three different sets of genes.

In those difficult times when I feel like I have tried everything, I remind myself to not give up...that our 'end goal' in parenting, is to eventually have three girls who 1. love Jesus and follow Him
2. Love people  3.Have self-control 4. Can function as an adult in this crazy world 5. Make sound decisions. So I guess I call that 'Parenting on Purpose'...when decisions need to be made, we make them on purpose, with a goal in mind.

We have had one incredible summer...perhaps I'll post pics at some point....and my last 'summer duty' before school starts is to teach DanNi and Meredith about the 'birds and the bees'. Tune in next time for what I like to call 'Shock and Awe'. We've already had Lesson One. Little do they know, we are just getting started!!!