Parenting is one of the most challenging yet rewarding journeys that a Christian man can embark upon. As a father, there are many things that we want for our children:  happiness, success, good health, good character, etc. However, it's essential to remember and stay focused on what our ultimate goal really is: to lead them to Jesus and to teach them to follow Him.

Today, we will explore how the gospel can help us understand how to parent our children, using Paul David Tripp's ideas for five questions to help our kids consider what's really going on when things get out of control.

5 Key Questions

For many Christians, the Gospel of Jesus is simply an introduction to salvation and then the hope of heaven later on when we die.  But to think of it in these terms alone is to miss so much of what it can do.

The Gospel is the good news of Jesus.  That he rescues us from our sin and bondage and has written our names in heaven where nothing on earth below or heaven...

What's the best advice you could give to a Christian dad when it comes to parenting?

Here are 7 ideas that come to my mind:

1. Pray.

There are SO many times that my wife and I were unsure of what to do in a particular parenting situation (and still are!). It’s very challenging to know how to respond to each situation that you face as parents.  Let's be honest, actually, and say that it's impossible to know how to respond to every situation the right way. There’s no rule book or guide that you can easily look up the situation that you're facing and quickly or easily say, ‘Oh, there’s the answer I was looking for!’. So, you just do the best you can and cover each and every day in prayer.

Speaking of prayer, I would pray this consistently over all of our girls:

“God, please help my girls to love you from an early age and help them to love you faithfully all the days of their lives. Help them to never give up on you or turn away...