Give Them Grace

I finished this book by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson a couple of days ago. They made some great points about what it means to be a Christian parent. So many times we focus on making our children good and equate that with our success as parents. "Good manners have been elevated to the level of Christian righteousness" (p 20). We focus on the law--do this, don't do that--and ignore the gospel of grace that is central to Christian teaching. When instead, all that we do should come back to Jesus and the work He has already done on our behalf.

The other statement that really resonated with me was this: "Although we long to be faithful parents, we also rest in the truth that our faithfulness is not what will save our children . . . our children will be saved only through the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit . . . He may use us as means to accomplish His purpose, but salvation is entirely of the Lord" (p 22). Our children won't be saved on the basis of what we as parents do or don't do. We can and should strive to model the gospel of grace to them, to talk about it frequently, to let it permeate every aspect of our lives. But the salvation of our children is not dependent upon our own works.

As always, I didn't agree with all the points made in this book. It got repetitive at times. Some of the examples were very "preachy" and much too long. The kids I know would have tuned out mom long before she got to the main point. Sometimes you just need to show your kids instead of tell them. But it did get me thinking about what kind of parent I want to be--I don't want our home to be filled with rules and for my kids to think that God is like Santa Claus, watching to see if they are good or bad and rewarding them accordingly. I want them to see Jesus, who loves us despite our sin and who is our only rescue.