Transcript
Well, I hate parenting. Well, actually, there are things I hate about parenting and you should hate them, too. I hate that as a parent, I'm a sinner; that my struggle is not just that I have children that need to be parented. My struggle is not just that that takes place in a fallen world. My struggle is the sin that's inside of me that makes it so hard for me to be what I'm supposed to be and to do what I'm supposed to do as a parent.
Representative Authority, Not Autonomous Authority
Now, think about this. I don't have any autonomous parental authority at all. I have none. I have representative authority. My authority is God's authority. Here's what God has set up - that the job of a parent is to make the invisible authority of God visible in the lives of children.
That means this - that every time I exercise authority as a dad, it must be a beautiful picture of the authority of God. You know what gets in the way of that? My sin. I can be so impatient. I can be so irritable. I can be so self-righteous. I can be so demanding. I can be so controlling. And what parenting does is parenting exposes the deep struggle of sin of my own heart. That should make me sad. That should make me mad and it should do the same for you, too.
So if you share this parenting video with the #IHateParenting, you will have the possibility of winning this parenting packet. First is a video series called Getting to the Heart of Parenting. Lays a foundation for parenting and then applies it to 0 to 5, 6 to 12, 13 'til only God knows. Very, very practical and there's also a downloadable study and discussion guide.
Second is Shepherding a Child's Heart, my brother, Ted's book. It's a classic and just a biblical view of parenting children. And then third, Age of Opportunity, which is specifically about parenting teens. One thing nice about the Age book is it's got a 60-page study guide at the end of the book that will really help you to assess where you are as a parent with your children.
