“Today’s parents are frustrated and confused.  Children don’t act like they should and parent’s don’t understand why.  Many have concluded the job is impossible…You can raise children in godly ways at the beginning of the 21st century.  You need not—indeed, you dare not—cave in, concluding that the task is impossible.  Experience may tell you failure is inevitable, but experience is an unsafe guide.  The only safe guide is the Bible…God’s ways have not proved inadequate.”

Those words from the introduction of Tedd Tripp’s book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, resonate with many of us as parents and potential parents.  We want to raise our children in a God-honoring way—kids who love and follow Jesus, who honor their father and mother, who make good choices, who leave the nest with a biblical worldview and can defend and articulate their faith, who are salt and light in a world of decay and darkness.  We want children who are not only a blessing to us, but are a blessing to everyone who encounters them.  I won’t lie to you.  That kind of parenting is a huge responsibility and a monumental task, but there is hope and there is help.

On September 19th & 20th, Dr. Tedd Tripp will be leading the Biblical Parenting Seminar at MHC.  In the midst of a sea of parenting philosophies and resources Dr. Tripp offers sound, practical, and biblical help for parents.  He focuses not on controlling external behavior, as so many parenting approaches do, but on addressing the heart—the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23).  “When parenting short-circuits to behavior we miss the opportunity to help our kids understand that straying behavior displays a straying heart.  Our kids are always serving something, either God or a substitute for God—an idol of the heart.”

It is my desire to see you as parents and future parents equipped, resourced, and encouraged to disciple your own kids—to partner with you in reaching children for Jesus and helping them live transformed lives that live for Him.  The Biblical Parenting Conference will be a foundational equipping event for parents with children of all ages.  If you haven’t already, let me also encourage you to pick up Dr. Tripp’s book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, and his newest book, Instructing a Child’s Heart, which focuses more specifically on helping our children build a biblical worldview—a way of interpreting life through the redemptive story of God.