Purposeful Parenting

The older I become and the more experience I gain as a parent, my eyes are opened to the “more important” things in life. As I reflect back on the earlier years when my older children were just small and in diapers, I truly had good intentions with being a good mom but I was literally just trying to
“survive” another day!  I’m sure someone can relate!

 As the days turn into years I have realized my job at home as mom is the most important thing there is.  Everything that I do, teach, & model before my kids is going to impact them for eternity and for a life time.  That’s a big deal!!!

I know when we are going through the day in and day out of things it doesn’t feel like that.  Another dirty diaper, another bath, another skinned knee, another melt down of some sort from a 2 year old….but if we have purpose behind what we do than we can really have a spiritual impact on our children.

 The synonyms for purposeful is:  focused, determined, decisive, decided, persistent & fixed.  Does that describe how we are parenting our children?   I know for me that’s not always the case. (Lord willing I’m trying everyday)  I get busy with the day to day of things and we lose focus from time to time.   The reality is that I only have my children for a small amount of time, so everything I do must be purposeful, it must be intentional.

 So how can we as moms be purposeful in our parenting?

1. We need to pray!  And then pray some more…..and then pray some more! God has got to be our source of strength and wisdom.  As He is molding our hearts and lives, we are in turn molding our children’s hearts and lives.  We need to be walking close to the Lord because our kids need to see Christ in us!

2. We need to be intentional about our teaching.  Look for ways in everything you do to point them to Christ.  Whether you’re taking a walk, doing family devotions, cooking, playing outside, reading books at night, going to the store…..find an opportunity to teach them about Christ.  Show them ways to serve others, to be faithful, to develop the fruits of the Spirit, to witness to the lost, etc.

 “Purposeful Parenting is parenting with the future in mind.”

3. We need to have goals.  The most important goal and desire for each of my children is that they come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.  I also desire that they will love God will all their heart, all their soul, and their entire mind.  That they will desire the things of God and seek God’s will for their life.  This DOES NOT just happen by taking them to church on Sunday morning.

 I as a mom need to be living this out in front of them, purposely teaching them this through out the day.  One of the verse I love  ( I love it so much I put it on my dining room wall) is Deut. 6:5  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”   (that is my prayer for each of my children)

4. We need to pray AGAIN.  I know I said this before but it’s true!  Satan wants more than anything to destroy your children.  We need to pray over them and have purpose in our hearts as moms to train, guide and teach them every opportunity we have!

 This takes a plan,

                           this takes goals,

                                                          this takes some purposeful parenting!

  Moms are you with me?

(read this powerful quote below)

“Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is place in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into it’s soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,–she would see that in all God’s world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her.” -JR Miller