To Sum Up: Gospel-Centered Mothering
Filed under {!-- ra:0000000004e6018a000000004c1cce92 --}{if 'To Sum Up: Gospel-Centered Mothering' == '52home' && category_name == '52home'} Motherhood {if:else} Motherhood {/if}The girls asked me to close out our little series on gospel-centered mothering. I thought it might be helpful to share three areas my mom has encouraged us to use as kind of a “quick check” on our mothering in between more significant times of evaluation and planning. Gospel-centered mothering certainly involves more than these three things, but not less.
Teach Your Children God’s Word (Deut 6:7)
Our children are bombarded with words all day, every day: from friends, siblings, teachers, coaches, and media. As parents we must not only guard and approve those who can speak words into our children’s lives, we need to make sure they are getting a large dose of God’s Word each day.
Just as we evaluate and adjust our children’s food diet, we should often evaluate and make adjustments to their “gospel diet.” Each day are they getting a heaping helping of Scripture?
Many of the gospel words our children receive will come from our mouths, but we should also use as many resources as possible, especially those available through our local church.
Our prayer is that 2 Timothy 3:15—which John Piper preached from at our church this past Sunday—can be said of all our children: “…how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Teach Your Children to Respect and Obey (Eph 6:1-4)
We spent most of our time in this series on the importance of obedience and respect because it seems there is more confusion, and as a result, maybe less application in this critical area of gospel-centered mothering.But it is of vital importance! There is much more we could say, on this topic, but for further study we highly recommend J.C. Ryle, Tedd Tripp, and Elisabeth Elliot.
Win Your Children’s Hearts (Titus 2:4)
“Love is the grand secret to effective training” said J.C. Ryle and he couldn’t be more right. This is why we talk often here at girltalk about making memories with your children and why it is so important to lavish them with affection and encouragement. Your training in obedience and respect, and your teaching of God’s Word will be effective in proportion to your expressions of love for your children.
No doubt we’ll return to the topic of mothering some time soon, but in the meantime, you can download a pdf of this series to review and apply. May God give us much grace as we seek to preach the gospel to our children. I know he is eager to answer this prayer.