Gospel-Powered Parenting

As summer winds down, the school year is looming very large on the horizon for parents and children alike. For some it is already here. If you are sending your child off to school for the first time, no doubt there is some nervous apprehension not only for the child, but perhaps even more so
on the part of the parents.

Michael Kelley experienced many of these feelings today sending his six-year-old son off to school for the first time. His pain proved to be our gain though, as it led to a great post on one way that the gospel speaks to parenting. In it he writes:

This, I choose to believe, is where the gospel is brought to bear on the first first day of school. We’ve tried our best to prepare Joshua. To teach him about Jesus. To raise him in love and faith. But have we done enough?

Unquestioningly, no. We have not. I have not.

I have not been the perfect father.

I have not been the perfect teacher.

I have not been the perfect example.

But the gospel? Well, the gospel is God making up for what we lack. And in parenting, as in all cases, we lack very, very much. The gospel doesn’t excuse our lack; it assumes our lack. Because of Jesus, in this situation where I can’t do much else, the only avenue left for me is to believe.

Which ironically, is where I should have started to begin with.

Read the whole thing here.

Pray for Boldness

Michael Kelley authors a great guest post for Zach Nielsen today over at one of my favorite blogs, Take Your Vitamin Z.

In it he offers a helpful corrective for our prayer lives, suggesting that in the midst of difficulties, the focus of our prayers ought to be boldness to proclaim the gospel in the midst of our circumstances as opposed to deliverance from them.

Boldness, not deliverance. Extension of the gospel, not a change in circumstances. Courage, not comfort. Maybe I ought to spend a little more time praying for that type of thing rather than a band-aid for my perceived problems. Because if I did, it would show that I had a much more full grasp of how big and important the gospel really is.

I recently finished preaching through Ephesians, and I am likewise reminded of the example we find there of Paul. Though he was under arrest, his prayer request was actually not that he would be released, as I'm quite sure mine would be. Rather he asks for prayer "that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak" (Ephesians 6:19-20).

You can read Michael's whole post here. By the way, be praying for Zach that he would proclaim the gospel boldly in Madison, Wisconsin, as he is in the process of moving to be part of a church plant there.