Today we had a guest preacher at church, Jim Egli (thanks, Jonell!). He gave a great sermon about the phases of life of a Christian, and challenged us to keep growing. It was a great sermon, and lots of people came up for prayer afterwards, including me.
He outlined the phases of life, including supporting scriptures to be:
-- Baby
-- Teenager
-- Parent
-- Grandparent
A "baby" is a new Christian, whose only job is to grow. A teenager's job is to start taking responsibility. If you find yourself saying, "I can do that better," then God is probably calling you to do it (better is another question). A parent's job is to reproduce--to nurture spiritual babies and teens into parenthood. And a grandparent's job is to lead the leaders of the church.
As someone in the parent phase of life, both literally and spiritually, all I can say is it's draining. I was having "life group insecurity" last night, saying how much I stink at it and how others in our group should be the ones leading...one of them has a "day job" of being a spriritual grandparent, and another couple were "parents" at another church. So our group is well past the age of bottles and diapers, which you'd think would be easier, but I think it leads to greater feelings of parental insecurity. But it's where God put us for now...if we manage to grow by a couple more couples, we may be ready to "multiply" next summer, and maybe those leaders will be leading. So until then, I'll keep to the task in front of us...
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5 comments:
I think you guys are doing a great job as parents both physically and spiritually. There are no "books" beyond the bible to really guide you. Keep on keeping on. Thank goodness we have a good model to follow after. :-)
I heard a speaker on a similar topic lately.
Mama Bear
His name was Jim Egli. :)
I agree with Kim on this one!
I will echo Kim and Jonell. You guys are great parents in every sense of the word. But you're right, it is completely draining and easy to doubt.
Hmmmm....I'd have to think this one over for my own life a bit. I think I'm in different stages in varying areas of my life. Still an infant in some ways, but a "grandparent" in others.
I think you are doing just great! Maybe the draining part is that you haven't run far enough down the path yet to be able to look back and see your progress. And, since your kids are still relatively young, there isn't enough longevity with them to have a long perspective, yet either. Hang on to Jesus--just like you have been!
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