Parental Guidance Required

As pastors, specifically over the children of our church, Ken and I are often sought out to give parenting advice. Now, we are the first ones to admit that we don't have it all figured out, but, our kids are pretty awesome and so we've decided that maybe we actually have something to say. I'm going through Andy Stanley's parenting series "Parental Guidance Required" and he definitely has some great things to say.

Here's a few things I've picked up...

Our kids often grow up experience-rich but relationship-poor. We spend so much time making sure they have the experiences we didn't have, and we don't spend enough time focusing on their relational health.

Here's what people never say:

"My problems in my life stem from the fact that my dad made me drive a used car."

"My clothes were so bad in high school that my self-esteem never recovered."

"I can't be successful in life because I didn't make the 5th grade soccer team and I went to public school instead of private school."

Are you pouring too much into the experiences your child has? Are the sports, education, trips, and lessons taking up too much of your child's life? Experiences aren't a bad thing, but if we are spending far more time on our kids' experiences, than we are on our kids' relationships, we've missed the boat. Are you spending enough time with your kids? Or are you substituting experiences for your time?

There are 3 questions we should be asking ourselves.

1) What am I doing to Enhance my child's relationship with me?

2) What am I doing to Advance my child's relationship with God?

3) What am I doing to Influence my child's relationship with others?

Parenting is tough, tough work. And we have to be intentional. What does successful parenting look like at the end of the day and how do we get there?

(Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I've been suffering from a severe shortage of things to say...)