There are approximately 150 families in this church with children ages birth to 18 years old. That means there are many parents among us who are working daily on the task of bring up their children in the Lord. That is no small task.
When I first arrived at Northside, I was impressed by the number of pews that were filled with families who had several generations sitting together worshiping God. It reminded me of Joel 1:1-3 when the Lord told Joel to tell the people of the land to think about what God had done and “tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.”
It is a blessing to have generational faith. It is also a responsibility given to us by God. He tells us through the Psalmist, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. . .” That simply means all our families are extensions of God’s story. Amazing thought, isn’t it? The role of parenting, even in its imperfections, is God’s way of displaying His heart to every generation. There are millions of resources to guide parents to produce near “perfect” children, but we need look no further than God’s history to see that He does not require perfection. In fact, if most of the parents in the Bible attended here, we would be recommending counseling for them!
So what does God desire when it comes to parenting? I believe He wants a place where imperfect people have a genuine faith in a God who redeems and works powerfully in us to complete His story. He is interested in telling His story through us so that the world sees His grace more than our “perfection.” If we are to pass on His heritage, it is done in the intimate relational environment of a home. Seems reasonable that a relational God would desire his story to be passed on through relationships. What a plan.
Telling God’s story to the world is an enormous task. We are told they will know we are His followers by the way we live His love. Parenting is an opportunity to nurture the seed of God’s love to grow generations of believers. It is difficult to do alone and that is why God gave us a church family. We are all in this together.
All parents with children birth to 12th grade are invited to attend a new Wednesday night class beginning on January 2nd called Intentional Parenting. It will be for 6 weeks and will meet in the Fellowship Hall. I’m letting you know this early so you can carve out those weeks for this important class. You will learn more about it in the upcoming weeks but for now, put it on your calendar. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to be with other parents and learn, support and encourage each other as together we work at passing on God’s heritage to the next generation.