The Myth of the Perfect family

Thank you JBO for sending this article. Very timely, very reassuring. :) I really believe that parents are stewards of God's children here on earth and that when God's time comes and He will ask for His children, we have to bring them back to their real Father. And while they are under our care, it is the parent's responsibility to take care of them with all compassion, commitment and love.
Easier said than done, right?
The Myth of the Perfect Family


God will never make believers answer for how their children turned out—only for how they raised them. God wants us prayerfully living out our marriages and families based on prayer and His Word. That is all He expects from each of us His children today.
After years of combing through every verse of the Bible dozens of times, I still haven't found the perfect family—a family with a godly dad, a godly mom, with all their children who are submissive their entire time at home, and all of whom grow up to move on into godly marriages and homes. This type of "perfect family" just isn't recorded in the Bible.
What we do find in God's Word are some godly parents who have both godly and ungodly children; we also find some ungodly parents who have all ungodly children, while other ungodly parents end up with some godly children. There just doesn't seem to be a parenting pattern that always works to produce a "perfect" family.

So what is the answer for us as we parent? The delightful reality that God only asks us to pray and follow His Word, not produce a "perfect" family. There are three steps we need to follow as godly parents today.

1. Give them back to God (Luke 2:22)
So, in dedicating their children back to God, believing parents make the public affirmation of the promises in Scripture by saying,


"Lord God—
We will raise Your children as our very own.
We will surrender them back to You.
We will have Your peace when it is hard and when they
are making their own choices that will shape their future lives.
We will always pray for them, always love them,

and no matter what happens—
We will have Your peace because we gave them to You,
raised them for You as best we knew how and could do."



2. Respond Biblically to Struggling Children

3. Practice Life Long Prayer
Remember: Faithful prayer, in step with God's plan in His Word, is God's most powerful key to unlock children's hearts as we disciple them for Christ.

Biblical Christians live in reality; and they see life as it really is from God's vantage point in His Word. The battle for our children's souls is won "one prayer at a time"—"Is anything too hard for the Lord? . . . " (Genesis 18:14a)!


Taken from the "DiscoverTheBook Radio"
ministry of John Barnett