Everything is Parenting
How the WHOLE Bible is valuable for parenting, not just the "parenting" verses
I’ve often heard and have been guilty of saying, “The Bible doesn’t really say anything on this,” in regards to different parenting-related topics. And while I believe in being firm where scripture is firm and flexibe where it’s flexible, I also believe everything in the Bible is parenting.
The lie that, “The Bible doesn’t really say anything on this,” is one of Satan’s best because if the christians are believing the Bible doesn’t speak into a topic, what hope does the rest of the world have? To lose faith in the word of God is to lose faith in God.
The truth: the entire Bible speaks into every aspect of parenting—not just the “parenting verses.”
❤️🧡Everything in the Bible is parenting❤️🧡
How?
Because when you read the Bible with a renewed mind, the condition of your heart is exposed. And the condition of our hearts is the root and foundation from which our whole life— parenting included — flows.
Because while there may be flexibility in an array of choices that would all be “walking in obedience” — God is always looking at our heart posture and motives behind our choices. Different options have different hearts motives; and therefore potential sin behind the “obedient” choice.
Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.Proverbs 4:23
But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.
Romans 14:23
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
I could really make everyone’s lives easier and end the post here, but of course, being full of words, I’ll keep going.
God parents us
God, the everlasting father, teaches us how to parent not with a chapter titled “how to raise a stubborn toddler” but with 66 books about truth and grace.
He gives us dignity. He gives us free will within boundaries he himself set in place (family, city, finances, physical abilities). He leads with gentleness but never lets sin go unpunished. He gives us favor and blessing beyond what we could ever deserve or earn. He allows us to experience consequences of our actions, but is merciful in it. He loves us with a love we could never understand. He only does what is in our best interest, for our good, even when we don’t understand it. God’s word shapes and grows us, internalizes in us, the way our own words shape, grow, and internalize in our children. He protects us from dangers we don’t even know about.
It’s all there. In every book.
God, the father, is everywhere in the word.
(I have previously written about the joy of parenting in christ is that it ultimately parents us.)
And so, we parent God’s children
We are God’s children who are chosen to be given God’s children.
We are entrusted with the responsibility and privilege to train them up in the way they should go.
We are commanded to make disciples.
And these two truths are not separate in a vacuum!
Our children are disciples we are entrusted to train up.
Every chapter and verse about making disciples, loving others, rebuking fellow believers, speaking truth in love, pursuing holiness, persevering in trials, forgiving, encouraging, exhorting—all are valuable to meditate on in parenting. The Bible isn’t merely a guide for how we should live or how to make disciples—it’s an entire blueprint of how to parent.
Okay, okay, you’re probably thinking, but what about nap schedules and eating philosophies and potty training and specific discipline issues.
Indeed the Bible doesn’t get into modern-day, tactical guides. Looking back at my own pareniing, the times I was deeply engrained and obsessive about specific parenting issues “not addressed in the Bible”….
…at what point do good parenting intentions become idols?
An idol is anything we want more than God. Anything we feel like, “ahh, once I have this, do this, be this, things will be better and I can be happy.”
And lawd knows we’ve all felt this way in parenting.
I think parenting and making your child an idol is extremely insidious because it truly just… looks like good parenting.
It’s good to care about your child’s school, education, grades.
It’s good to make sure they get started eating the right foods at the right times in a healthy way.
It’s good to follow the day care’s potty train policy and get them trained up on time—or just trained in general without a day care!!
It’s good to discipline and get a handle on behavior.
But…
More important than your child’s outcome and successes of education, eating, sleeping, and pottying or anything else—is your heart posture behind it all.
Is your ideal outcome the ***ultimate goal*** ??? OR is your ultimate goal to seek the glory and presence of God in either outcome? To be content in Christ in any outcome? To live a life worthy of the calling in any choice or lifestyle? To live out the gospel in parenting no matter if you or your child “succeeds or fails”?
What I’ve learned is that God cares far more about our hearts than anything else. Far more than our convenience and comfort in parenting, he desires a a humble heart he can exalt. A soft heart he can transform. A pure heart that can see and hear him.
Because of that, God is more often than not going to align our circumstances not to our ideal outcome but to what will develop our hearts, our spirits, our faith.
If you’ve gotten far too caught up in a very specific way of doing something that the Bible didn’t directly address—and we’ve all been there—I’m not saying it’s a sin. I’m not saying you should drop it.
I’m saying you should check your heart behind it.
❤️🧡Seek God first. Pray ceaselessly. Confess to his people. And God will show you what to do. He will provide a way. Whether it’s in Scripture or another friend, expert, or parenting book.
❤️🧡The point is: God leads. You follow. And it starts with seeking him first.
Instead of immediately seeking the friend, expert, or book before seeking God in prayer or scripture. Instead of falling for the lie, “God doesn’t care which option I choose”
To be clear: the Bible does directly address parenting with specific and unique instructions to moms, dads, and children (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 6:1 & 4, the fifth commandment, and more).
But I hope this post helps you see the Bible equips us so much more fully in parenting when we see with a renewed mind. My hope is you leave this post feeling strengthened and renewed in being chosen for the work of parenting. We already have everything we need.
❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡❤️🧡
Some of my favorite “non-parenting” verses for parenting
James 1:5, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Psalm 127:1-2, It is a waste of time to get up early and stay up late, trying to make a living. The Lord provides for those he loves, even while they are sleeping.
Isaiah 26:3, You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Isaiah 26:7, The way of the righteous is level; you clear a path for the righteous.
1 Peter 3:12, The Lord watches over those who do what is right, and he listens to their prayers. But he is against those who do evil.”
James 3:13, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
2 Timothy 1:7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Psalm 139:23-24, Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
1 John 3:18, Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
Romans 12:1-2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Philippians 4:19, And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:11, I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
Psalm 51:11, Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Hebrews 6:10, God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
Psalm 66:18, The Lord will not hear me if I hold on to sin in my heart.
Luke 6:36, Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful
Luke 6:32, If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.
Colossians 3:17, And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Matthew 11:28, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Luke 9:23, Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
John 15:7, If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
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I am truly blown away by your thoughts and prayers and your perspective on God, life, parenting, reality. What a blessing it is-as your earthly parent to read such profound, spiritual, teachings that apply to a grandparent- ! You have a gift of sharing God’s word. Keep it up. ❤️🙏🏻✝️