In this crossover episode with Al James from the Effective Ministry podcast we spoke about how Christian parenting is a balancing act. It involves balancing—or holding in tension—a number of different truths about the context in which we are raising our children. We need to view our family life through the different 'lenses' or layers of where we are in God's plan of salvation.
- We are raising our children in creation—within the natural, created order of human life.
- But we are also raising our children as finite beings in a fallen world, where sickness, death, sin and confusion mean that our experience of family life sometimes falls short of God’s creational ideals.
- Christian parents are responsible in Christ for raising our children to know, love and follow him.
- Yet we do this in a changing world that is often working against us.
- Christian parents also raise their children within the Church, the larger family of God, which also has a responsibility to pass the faith on to the next generation.
- Finally, we are raising our children in the light of eternity, where earthly relationships will be overshadowed by our ultimate relationship with God.
So how can we keep all these realities in balance? What happens when we drift too far in any one direction?
In this episode we chatted about how Christian parents can keep the balance and remain 'anchored' in Christ. As we did this, we explored how the chapters of Parenting in God's Family Volume 2 fit into this framework.
Listen and be encouraged to anchor your family in Jesus, the one who holds us steady through the storms and changes of life in this world.
Theme music:
Soul's Getting Wet by Ali Maegraith. Produced by Ali Maegraith and Gerard Masters. Available on
SoundCloud.