September 30, 2025 • 35 mins
What is the biblical goal of parenting? In this episode of the Gospel Shaped Family Podcast, Josh and Jen share how parents can move beyond survival mode and gain crystal clarity about what they’re aiming for with their children.
You’ll hear:
- Personal stories of faith and legacy from Josh and Jen’s families
- The surprising research on why children keep (or leave) their faith as adults
- The three simple practices every parent can start today to nurture authentic faith at home
- Key biblical passages that shape how parents can disciple their children
Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, or church leader, this conversation will encourage you to make your child’s maturity in Christ your priority.
Subscribe now and join us as we shape hearts, homes, and churches around the gospel one conversation at a time.
Book 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: https://bit.ly/50thingspc
Renewanation: https://bit.ly/rangsfpc
Gospel Shaped Family Homepage: https://bit.ly/gsfhpc
Article: The No. 1 Reason Teens Keep Faith as Young Adults: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-no-1-reason-teens-kee_b_6067838
Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp: https://amzn.to/4p62zR5
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm Josh and I'm Jen.
Welcome to the GospelShaped Family podcast.
Each episode brings biblical wisdomand practical conversations
on parenting, marriage, and family,and we discuss
how to disciple the next generationwith a biblical worldview.
Whether you're raising children,shepherding a church, or longing
(00:20):
to build a legacy of faith in your home,this podcast is for you.
Join us as we explore how to shapehearts, homes, and churches
around the gospel,one conversation at a time.
Welcome back to the Gospel Shaped Familypodcast.
Josh, episode number two. We're here.
This is it.
(00:41):
How are you doing?
I'm good. I'm ready. Ready?
Yeah. I'm excited to be back.
We survived episode one for chatting.
Did it, did itincrease the intimacy of our marriage or.
I think it's great.
Oh, good. Okay. I was I had a great time.
You know, like when you do stuff togetheras a couple, sometimes it's like,
you know.
No, I thought it was challenging and.
(01:03):
No, no challenge.
I had so much fun.
I had a friend ask me,how did episode one go?
And I told her, I said I had a great time.
I'm looking forward. Me too.All right. Good.
Yeah. It's good. So,what are we talking about today?
We're talking about a biblical visionfor parenting. Yes.
So we want to help our listenersgain clarity
(01:24):
about what they'retrying to accomplish with their kids.
What are they trying to accomplish?
And how are you goingto, assess that in a couple key ways.
So biblical vision for parents.
Yeah.
We want to know whatwe're trying to accomplish.
If we don't know what the bull's eye is,then all the
daily interactions,the things we're working
(01:46):
toward week after week, monthafter month, year after year.
How do we know whatwe're trying to accomplish?
And so this today, we're hopingthat this gets to crystal clarity
so that, everything that we starttalking about and doing in our home
kind of works towards that end,working towards the same goal.
(02:07):
Yeah. Yeah, that'll be good.
Funnel it down.
It's great.
Well, let's talk about our families.
Tell me about your familygrowing up. Josh.
How did you get here?
Yeah, like my, mom and dad's family.Yeah.
So my parents, grew up Catholicand came out of that background.
They started dating when they were both, not Christians.
(02:28):
And my dad became a Christian.
He was, he was on the cross countryteam in, college.
And he they were driving backfrom a cross-country meet,
and he they had a long bus ride,and he was sitting on the window seat,
and he he would tell us as kidsabout how his teammate, you know, he had,
(02:50):
kind of I don't know, this is likesome kind of, like, evangelism method.
But he had them.
He had my dad trapped. He couldn'tget out. And it was a long car ride.
So he started asking himquestions about his my dad's faith
and where he thought he would end upif he died today.
And, you know, just started talking,
and sharing his Christian faithwith my dad.
(03:10):
And that got my dad thinking.
And, over the course of time,my dad came to faith
in Christ, and, he was dating my mom.
So at this time, he was a Christian.
She wasn't a Christian.
And so, of course,he wanted to marry a Christian woman.
And so he, led my mom to faithwhile they were dating.
(03:31):
And in their early years, of course,there, you know, they got married
and their brand new Christians,newly married.
And I came along fairly soon after.
I'm the first, firstborn of the family.
And so here my parents are prettynew Christians themselves,
with the newborntrying to figure out their own walk
(03:52):
with the Lordand growing rapidly in their own faith.
And then now they're trying to figure out,wow, you know,
everybody has been a parent.
You know, you hold your baby, your firstbaby for the first time, and you're like,
I don't know about you.
But for me it was like, well,this is a huge responsibility.
And it's kind of like the weightof responsibility hits you like,
(04:13):
oh man, I'm responsible now,
not only for this child physically,
but also everything elsespiritually as well.
And, you know, I can just imaginemy parents thinking that
this is fairlynew Christians themselves with myself.
So I'm a little bit of a guinea pigwith our family.
But my parents, you know, thankfulfor the local church and for,
(04:37):
individualsthat they were able to interact with.
And my parents were focused on the familypeople with Doctor James Dobson.
They learned a lot from himin those early years.
And others.
And, you know, I'm
as an adult now, I look backand I'm really grateful for my parents.
They were super intentionalin discipling us as kids.
(05:01):
And, and I would if you'd ask me,who are the most impactful
people in your life that have, shapedwho you are?
Your faith?
Top of the list is my dad and my mom.
Both of the both of them together,had critical, impactful roles.
So I'm really grateful for that.
We have a strong legacy of faithin our family.
(05:21):
And that that was true for me,as well as all my siblings.
And, we're all raising our kids, me andmy siblings, to raise, to love the Lord.
And as far as I know, everybody'swalking with Jesus Christ, today.
And that which is really rare in our dayand age and culture and,
you know, you know, thankfully,that's the grace of the Lord.
(05:44):
And we obviously are completely dependent
upon him for, for that continueto work in their hearts and lives.
But that's my background.
How about your faith background?
What about your parents?
Since you're similar?
Because my parents were not believerswhen they got married.
And so my mom grew up Catholic.
My dad grew up with,I think, no faith in his home.
(06:05):
And my grandparentscame to Christ as adults.
And they were my dad's parents.
Very open about that.
That like, I remember my grandpa evenjust saying, like, my life was changed.
The he he would sayI am a physically different person now.
And so my parents, did not know the Lordwhen they got married.
They had a full Catholic wedding.
(06:26):
And so like similar,they became Christians.
And then they really sought toraise us in a Christian home.
And I would say my mom,
especially like my mom, gosh,I feel like I'm going to cry.
She she passed away.
So I'm like, oh, maybe we should.
11 years agoyesterday was the anniversary of her.
(06:50):
I don't know, we call it death date,I guess.
And see, you know, moms and dads,they have a special place in our heart
and especially those that, were impactful parents that we truly miss.
Like your mom, we miss her dearly.
Loved the Lord so much.
So praise the Lord for herand just for her testimony,
(07:12):
and for how she lived her life so welland just really shared her faith,
not only with us kids,but with so many other people.
What do you think she'd say about,you and your kids
and the fact that this area of goodness,
the fact that you, like my mom diedas well, like 18 years ago.
So sometimes we think about, like,what would our parents say
(07:35):
if our mom's back today, like you have?
How many kids would my mom would say that?
You you're homeschoolingyour kids loved the homeschooling.
Yeah.
My mom didn't know we were doing that.
You you did live on a farm. At the farm.
My mom would be like, no way, Jenny.
No. Yeah, yeah.
But even though they're not herein, you know, physically with us,
(07:57):
their legacy lives on their faith
through us, with our kidsand hopefully with grandkids.
And that's, you know,I think sometimes the most impactful thing
in life isn't necessarily what we do,but it's who we raise.
What's funny is my mom used to say thatI remember her saying that to me one time,
(08:18):
and I remember being like, mom, stop it,you know?
But really like her.
There were three of us, three kids.
And like, all three of usare, like, doing pretty cool stuff.
And we have kids and raising our kidsto love the Lord.
And yeah, it's such, such a great legacy.
I guess all that to say, great legacy,right, in our families.
And that's a blessing, right?
(08:39):
That's a blessing to have thatand to be able to say that,
you know, in a world where a lot of peopledon't have great relationships
with their parents,or people can look back and say, oh,
I wish, you know,I wish my parents would have x, y, z.
But yeah, so, so fast forward to today.
What word
(08:59):
would you use to describehow you're feeling as a parent like today?
How am I feeling?
Well, that's a hard question, but
our dog pooped on the floor.
I was annoyed about the kidsletting the dog poop on the floor
right before we were recordingthis podcast, so.
But I'm just going to go high level.
(09:20):
And I would say I'm feeling grateful.
I love I'm so grateful.
I love these days.
We just kind of came off of a season of,you took the boys fishing.
I had the girls home for a week,and I literally every day was like,
I am so gratefulfor the time with these kids.
I love spending time with them.
(09:43):
And then when you guys came home,you know, we like we all like
stood in the driveway and we're like,we're all back together again.
And we did like a big family hug.
We were like, yay!
And I was like, I'm just so grateful.
I'm so grateful. That's how I'm feeling.
You're feeling greatdespite the poop on the floor.
All right. Well, how are you feeling?
(10:03):
What's your what what?
Yeah, I was I was decide between two.
I think I ended up with dependentbecause I feel like the Ben.
Yeah, I feel it's fascinating.
Yeah, it's kind of an interesting word.
I feel like we've done like.
Like if you think about a farmingmetaphor, we've done a lot of hard work
(10:25):
as parents for a lot of years,consistently over time.
But of course, we can't control the outcomes.
So like a farmer, you know, we havewe've readied the ground,
we've plantedthe seeds, we've pulled the weeds.
We have just we have worked so hard,
(10:47):
but we're dependent upon the Lord.
It's the Lord that brings the growth,and it is the Lord that changes
hearts and, draws people to himself.
So I feel dependent.
You know, we're in the seasonnow where we're starting to see fruit
and we're seeing outcomes and choicesand life decisions made.
And we're,
(11:07):
you know, I feel likeI'm really dependent upon the Lord
in prayer and, his workingand asking that he will take
those things that we have doneand really use them to shape.
Yeah, that our kids know, loveand serve him for their whole life.
I mean, that's what we want is we canwe can put our head on our pillow at night
because, we are, you know,we trust that God will be working and,
(11:31):
so that's my that's my word.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
And I love that.
Let's take a break to thank RenaultNation, the sponsor of this podcast.
If you've benefited from the GospelShaped Family podcast,
consider making a tax deductible donationto Renew the Nation today.
(11:52):
Your generous donations make this podcastand our work
to help childrendevelop a biblical worldview possible.
If you've enjoyed the episode,you can support us by leaving a review.
This helps the podcast growand reach more families.
Now back to the show.
Well, as we're talking about
(12:13):
capturing a biblical vision for parenting,I, I thought we should take some time
and talk about this studythat was done by a sociologist.
This is a fairly new study.
A sociologist named Christian Smith.
I'm going to read it. Two guys.
It was published in the Huffington Post.
And yeah, notyou're not you're bashing of conservative
(12:35):
like this is not focus on the fly.
This is the Huffington Post.
Anyways, so there was a studyand it was the focus
was the number one reasonthat teens keep their faith as adults.
Teens keep their faith in faithas when I hear that you like,
you've pulled me in like I want to know.
I want to know what you as a parent,
(12:56):
what is the most important thingaccording to this study?
Yeah, right.
That is, that contributes to a young adultkeeping their faith into their adult.
That's like this is tangible stuff.
That's like athat's a big statement to make this clear.
Yeah. There's athere's a Christian Smith said.
He said the Holy Grailand this is in quotes, the Holy Grail
(13:18):
for helping youth remain religiously
active as young adults has been the homeall along.
It has been parents, he said.
Mothers and fathers who practice what theypreach and preach what they practice
are far and away the major influence
related to adolescentskeeping their faith into their 20s.
Okay, so so let's translate that, if I,
(13:42):
if I summarize what he just said,I would summarize that as authentic faith.
Yeah. Practicing what you preach. Yeah.
You as parents, what we doand say, our kids watch it of course.
And they are making makingconnections between.
This is the faith that they saythey have, the things that are important,
things are actually living outin their own life, which makes total sense
(14:05):
if we say certainthings are true and important,
but then we don't livethose out ourselves.
I kids kind of make the assumption, well,
if that's not important for my parents,why should it be important for me?
They're not going to liveaccording to that, why should I?
But the flip side is pretty criticalthen, too.
If Mom and dad, do you think that's worthliving their life according to.
(14:28):
And they see that consistently,that often translates.
Yeah. According to Christian Smith, to,to children. All right. Keep going.
Amazing study.Okay, here's some statistics.
He came up with just 1% of teens, ages15 to 17, raised by parents
who attachedlittle importance to their faith,
were highly religiousin into their mid to late 20s, so only 1%.
(14:51):
So if their parentsdid not place a weight on that,
then they were not 1%.
And then in contrast, 82%, 82% of kids
raised by parentswho talked about their faith at home,
who attachedgreat importance to their beliefs
and who were active in their churchcongregations
and were themselvesreligiously active as young adults.
(15:13):
Christian Smith states the the connection
is nearly deterministic,so it goes hand in hand
if the parents are walking the walk 82%,that's of kids.
That's a big numberlike just here, that number 82%.
So maybe you've heardthe the phrase dropout statistics.
(15:36):
It's a pretty common phrase,especially in the church world.
We talk a lot about itas pastors with, children and youth.
Sit and the kind of the agreedupon number.
And there's been a lot of research doneon this.
Now, it's not, this is a it's a real thing.
And the findings,depending on the study, is
usually between 60 to 80% of young people,youth, young adults
(15:59):
will drop out from the church,walk away from.
Just stop attending the church. Yeah.
So walk away from their faith entirely.
It's like a super depressing thing.
When you start hearing those numbers,you're like, oh my goodness.
And you start thinking about your ownkids, of course.
Well, here'sthis is like the flip side, this study,
82% of children
raised by parentswho did who do three things.
(16:22):
And these three things are literallysomething that
every single parent listening right nowcan, can do.
No other.
Yeah, learning needed these three things.
Repeat them again.Jay talked about faith at home.
Talk about faith at home.
You can do that. Attachedgreat importance to their beliefs.
Attached great like that.
Your kids see that this isyou're your love of God.
(16:43):
You're followingScripture is of critical importance.
And then active in their church
congregation, active at church like, yeah,not on Sunday.
We're we're going to church.It's a family.
We're not letting other things come in.
It costs $0. I can we get it?
We can all do that now. We can do it.
The not encouraging for us as parentsthat were the most important influence.
(17:04):
Yes. That determines what what happenswhat happens with our kids faith
and those kinds of things.
That's a that's a good study.
Yeah. It's great.
Yeah.
So I'm just reading through the statisticshere.
Yeah. Yep.
So basically what the Bible has taught usfor thousands of years, authentic faith
lived out at home.
(17:24):
It shapes our children, shapesour kids children, lives at home.
Love it.
Okay.
Jen, I think we're switchingnow gears to an for a segment,
new we'rewe're introducing a new segment.
What is this called?
This segment is a segmentthat I like to call
stump doctor Josh who is just up to die.
(17:47):
All right. We go. Okay.
Now, just so everybody knows,I does not have I don't
I don't know any of this coming up here.
So this is Jen.
This is on the stump. That's all. Hear it.
And all the I'll hear all the, optionsfor the first time right now.
Okay. Now,like we talked about this and then.
(18:07):
Yeah. Okay, here we go. Right.All right, I'm ready.
What do we got?
Okay, I'm gonna hide my notes from you.Okay.
Question.
Is this how many times is the wordparent or parents used in the Bible?
Now, there's so many parents in the Biblethink there's so many parents
in the Bible.
But how many times is actualword parent or parents used?
(18:31):
Do I get optional?
I'm going to give you. All right.
I just have to like, like,take a random number out of nowhere.
Yeah, I get like ABC or something.
I'm going to give you four options.Four options.
Okay. 11.
No, 17, no, 21 no or 46.
That's it.I would have thought of hundreds.
(18:51):
I don't think so.
Is if parents parent or parents
okay parents this is the combo okay.
All right.
What were they againI'll say it again 1111.
Yeah.
17 1721 or 46.
(19:11):
Ooh. All right everybody, you have a 25.
Get your answer in your head. Right.
I'm going with C 21.
Yeah. You got it. Yeah. We all right?
High five.
Yes. You're so smart, doctor.
Josh. Wow. Okay, okay,so I'll just say I'm.
That was a total guess from nowhere.
Since lucky, I got it right.
(19:32):
Okay. Let me. We're going to do it.
We'll go ahead.
I was I thought there was hundreds.
Well, according to it says theI did some research.
Okay.
The word parent or parentsappears 21 times in the King James
Version of the Bible.
According to the KingJames Bible Dictionary.
Now, maybe, depending on translation,if you're ESV ING it, maybe there's more,
(19:54):
which is great, I like, but
I'm just saying, according to my research,I couldn't find a lot.
Okay, well, that's good, but there's notgoing to go from 21 to like hundred.
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.
Well, the Bible uses other terms
to talk about parentsto like fathers and mothers and.
Yeah, all that stuff.
So you include those inmaybe we get up to 100, but there you go.
(20:15):
Now, you could do a little, studyon your own devotionals, like.
Look, let's look that up now myself.
Go do that.
Yeah.
21 well, parentwe you know that's a good question.
Segment segueing into can I whatare we trying to accomplish as parents?
The Bible has a lot to say, whether it'sthose exact terms or some other ones
(20:38):
the Bible uses about,you know, what our role is
as parents, what we're tryingto accomplish as parents.
And, as we think about that, I,
we want to put together two passagesto help drive our activity
with what we're, with, what we're tryingto accomplish with our kids in our home.
(20:59):
I'm going to summarize thatwith this phrase.
The most important thing to get rightas a parent.
That's a pretty bold statement to make.
But if you would say make it. Yeah.
If you were to say,what is the most important thing
that I am trying to accomplish in my lifewith my kids?
What what is that?
(21:20):
And I think we get that outof Deuteronomy six.
Deuteronomy six five.
It begins with this commandment.
It says, that we are to love the Lordour God
with all our heart, with all our soul,and with all our strength.
Let me just read. Itsays, you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul,with all of your might.
And then, of course, it goes on to thatwell-known parenting passage
(21:42):
to, teach these thingsand press them on your children.
Talk about them throughout the dayas you get up and, you know,
as you rise and all that, you'reprobably familiar with that passage.
We tend to jump towards that portionof the passage, the kind of the
how to side,first thinking about like the,
the implementation of what God's calledkind of the how to side of parenting.
(22:07):
But you notice,I do want you to notice here where
parenting begins scripturally, it doesn'tnecessarily begin with the how to.
It begins with the whatand the what happens to be
what's happening in our own heartsas parents.
And so God actually calls us
to love him as the most important thingthat we get right as parents.
(22:30):
There's actually.
So we could summarize this as saying,
what is absolutelycritical is our affections.
And it's important for us to recognize,
that God calls us to love himwith all of our hearts.
And so this is kind of the assessment
piece John mentioned at the beginning.
(22:51):
What is ourwhat is our greatest loves in life?
What are our passions in lifeand what are our kids
seeing as we livethat out in front of them?
When we have a love that is
with some of our heart,and when we love the Lord
with some of our heart,that's pretty detrimental to our children.
(23:13):
When when God is second to anything,even if they're good things,
there can be some great things that wethat we prioritize in our life.
But if they if they are prioritizedin front of God, in our
in our finances, in our scheduling,in our decision making, that,
(23:33):
of course, becomes really problematicfor our children, because why
just like that study that you read,it goes hand in hand with this.
What do our kids noticewhen they see other things?
They notice what is your first love?
And they notice where your heart is.
And that is what plays outin the day to day.
Yeah.
So I think it's safe to say here
(23:55):
that children tend to gravitatetowards the passions of parents.
And you can maybe think about
what are things that you love in life.
Just right now, as a, as an adult,
not only, what you believe about,
God, Christ, but also even, like,the things you just
(24:17):
enjoy, you're like, yeah.
What are some, like, your hobbies in life?
I'm trying to think music and musicand gardening, being outdoors.
But stuff.
And how much of your loves, Gen,do you think came from parents?
Grandparents? Like,can you, like, trace those back up?
I think, yeah, definitely.I think that I love a lot of stuff.
(24:38):
My, well, because I spent so much timewith my mom and my grandparents.
So I definitely lovethe things that I learned from them
and like, just savor,that doing those things
now as an adult on my own,even though they're not with me.
I will throw in a little snippet herethat I was just messaging
(24:58):
with one of my cousinswho I haven't seen him in ten years,
and he, messaged me and was just talking
about the parents, my the impactmy grandparents had on his life.
And it's like,oh yeah, yeah, you're right.
That's 100% true. Yeah.
He loves working.
Construction tree.
(25:19):
He actually created a patent on,on something that the my your grandpa.
Yeah, yeah.
But those things do transferthose generational impact day to day.
What do you love
and how do you spend those timewith your kids and your grandkids
passing that on, whether it's your faithor just your hobbies, your interests, you
(25:39):
you like a lot of stuffthat you spent time
doing with your dad and your mom,fishing, hunting, all of that.
Jesus Christ, yeah, all those thousandpercent, all those things transfer down.
Yeah, yeah.
So, divided hearts tend
not to lead to devoted childrenfollowing Jesus Christ.
And so I think that's, you know, that'sa, that's a critical piece that we can
(26:00):
maybe just do a little self-reflection onwhere are your
where is your greatest love? Yeah.
And do your kids see that you arejust your burning
passionately for Christ.
And of course
everything in our life communicateswhat is what we're most passionate about.
That was actually one of the findingsthat Christian Smith said in that study.
(26:24):
The authenticity piece there.
And you see that, of course, it'snothing new.
What Christian Smith found iswhat we've known scripturally
for a very long time,and we see that in, in Deuteronomy six.
So that becomes, really critical.
So what would be a couple of goals
here that we,that we are trying to accomplish
(26:46):
as parents here are that,you know, the two passages I mentioned,
one is Colossians 128 and 29,which I'll read.
This is general for all Christians.
But I do believe it applies really wellto what we're trying to do in the home.
It says there's some summarythat says him.
We proclaim, of course, that's Christ.
Warning everyone and teaching
(27:09):
everyone with all wisdom that we.
And here's the goal that we may present.
Everyone's includesour kids mature in Christ.
And I love the second half of this year.
It says, for thisI toil, struggling with all his energy.
Notice that the Lord is God's energy,
(27:29):
with all his energythat he powerfully works within me.
Yeah.
And so it's God's energythat makes our work, our labor, valuable.
But there is a there's a, you know,there's a there's a dual process here.
We're working hard. God's working as well.
But I love that phrase here.
(27:50):
This, this idea of toilingand and everybody is,
working for maturity in Christ.
So I think the key principles this,your child's
maturity in Christ is your priority.
And so, you know, the world tells us,
we're trying to raise successful, healthy,keep him out of jail.
(28:14):
You know, I just want him to be happy.
That's a happy kid, right? Yeah.
That's what we're trying to raise.
And the course. It's not that we don't.
That we all want our kids to be happy, but
we want them to be happyfollowers of Jesus Christ.
Like, that's the that's where we want.
That's the priority. Yeah.
So that that word mature
(28:36):
literally means, ripeness of character.
It's kind of a fun wayto think about maturity.
It literally means that, you know,it's planted and it's grown to this.
It's ripe.
It's bearing this fruit.
And what kind of fruit mature in Christ.
So we can generally thinkabout the attributes
(28:57):
of what Christ likeness looks like.
You can think about that from Scripture.
Fruit of the spirit.
You know, we probably could lista lot of different kinds of things.
So according to the Bible, to be mature
is to actually have Christ like character.
So we can see that displayed in ourin our behavior.
(29:17):
That's where we truly seethe fruit lived out.
And we can generally measurehow we're doing in, in that arena.
But you know that Paul statesthat phrase for this, I toil.
And all of us as parents are toil.
Are we for something?
Yes, yes, yes, toil is something.
(29:38):
The question is
whether or notwe're toiling for the right thing.
So I think the weighty question here
for usas parents is what are you toiling for?
And we can see what the Bible tells usto toil for maturity in Christ.
We could just assess ourselvesaccording to that passage as word.
(30:01):
You know, just think aboutwhat you're doing in the home.
Where are you?
Where you were in the midstof another school year here?
Would you say that your goalfor this school year would align
with the kinds of thingsyou just heard here in Colossians one?
Or would you say, man,
I'm really toiling for some thingsthat that actually won't actually get me?
Yeah, that have no eternal valueto that outcome.
(30:23):
And maybe we need to make some some shiftsand changes in how we're operating.
Yeah. All right. The second goal.
Jen, do you want towhen I read, Psalm 78 for us.
Yeah, I'd love to.
Or is that even, I don't think we know we didn't have that.
We need a Bible.
Oh, no.
(30:44):
Podcast.
Find a Bible. Podcast. Fail.
We don't even have a we don't have. Yeah, you can look it up. There we go.
All right.
Okay, I will phone Bible here
we go. Here.
I'll read it.
All right. Hold on.
All right.
Jen is pulling up Psalm78 four through eight.
I didn't realize we didn't have that.That's what worries.
(31:06):
No worries. Look at it.
I you know, some people love their phoneBible, but I don't like a phone Bible.
I like a real that.
Yes. Okay.
Psalm 78, verses four through eight.
I got you.
All right. What do you do in Ksbw?
I'm an s vegan.
Okay, well, I'm going to change it then.
Well, no, let me see. Here.
(31:29):
Shoot.
I don'tthink I can because I need an update.
Okay, let me just read it this way.
Go for it.
This is wonderful.
Okay. Verses 438.
We will not hide them from their children,
but we'll tell a future generationthe praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
his might, and the wondrous worksthat he has performed.
(31:52):
He established a testimony, and Jacoband he set up a law in Israel
which he commanded our ancestorsto teach our children,
so that the future generation,the children yet to be born, might know
they were to riseand to tell their children
so that they mightput their confidence in God
and not forget his works,but to keep his commands.
(32:15):
Then they would not be liketheir ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,a generation whose heart
was not loyaland whose spirit was not faithful to God.
That's a great good in the CSB.
One of my favorite.
That's good.
Okay.
So I don't know if you caught therein verse seven it talks about the goal.
(32:39):
And I you know we summarize itas salvation and obedience.
That's our goal as parents.
So we you know we talked about tellingof the glorious
deeds of the Lord is might is wonders.
And then it talksabout teaching the law of God.
So we got two methods there.
And then in verse seven it says, so that.
So we do those things
(33:00):
so that, as somethat they might put their confidence
to God and not forget,not forget his work, but their confidence,
their hope in God is the ESV says, yeah,and not forget the work of God.
This obedience, peace.
So that's kind of ourthat's a big goal for us as parents.
And we can, you know, we can generallythink our maturity in Christ, salvation
(33:25):
in Christ, hope, confidence in Christ, not forget the work of God.
This so this obedience, peace.
Teach them God's commands.
So we're responsiblefor communicating the gospel
with our family,for pointing them to Christ.
That phrase, keep
his commands is kind of equivalentin my mind to the Great Commission.
(33:45):
Yeah. Teach him to keep his commands.
Teach them to obeyall that I have commanded.
So, you know, we look at thisas a family discipleship passage,
which is why we, wewe kind of talk about it.
So I think, you know, thethe assessment piece here
is, are the kind of daily
conversations, the decisionsthat we are making, the activities
(34:09):
in the homethat we are doing with our family.
Do they do they matchthese kinds of priorities that we see here
in Scripture, or do we need to realigncertain areas of our life to kind of,
accomplish these end goals with our kids
and having that kind of clear bullseye?
(34:32):
Yeah.
With what we're trying to accomplishreally, really helps as we
then think through, how we, you know,how how does it play out?
How does it play out if you have a target?
I mean, if you don't have a target,you're not going to hit it.
That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
That's good.
All right. Good. Well, this was fun today.
I was a kid.
This was a fun podcast day I love it.
(34:55):
Well good deal.
We'll be back againsoon for episode three.
That does it for today.
Thank you guys.
Thanks for being here.And we'll see you next time.
Thank you for listening to the GospelSheep Family podcast.
Please share this episodeand give us a five star rating
wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Josh and I'm Jen.
Welcome to the GospelShaped Family podcast.
Each episode brings biblical wisdomand practical conversations
on parenting, marriage, and family,and we discuss
how to disciple the next generationwith a biblical worldview.
Whether you're raising children,shepherding a church, or longing
(00:20):
to build a legacy of faith in your home,this podcast is for you.
Join us as we explore how to shapehearts, homes, and churches
around the gospel,one conversation at a time.
Welcome back to the Gospel Shaped Familypodcast.
Josh, episode number two. We're here.
This is it.
(00:41):
How are you doing?
I'm good. I'm ready. Ready?
Yeah. I'm excited to be back.
We survived episode one for chatting.
Did it, did itincrease the intimacy of our marriage or.
I think it's great.
Oh, good. Okay. I was I had a great time.
You know, like when you do stuff togetheras a couple, sometimes it's like,
you know.
No, I thought it was challenging and.
(01:03):
No, no challenge.
I had so much fun.
I had a friend ask me,how did episode one go?
And I told her, I said I had a great time.
I'm looking forward. Me too.All right. Good.
Yeah. It's good. So,what are we talking about today?
We're talking about a biblical visionfor parenting. Yes.
So we want to help our listenersgain clarity
(01:24):
about what they'retrying to accomplish with their kids.
What are they trying to accomplish?
And how are you goingto, assess that in a couple key ways.
So biblical vision for parents.
Yeah.
We want to know whatwe're trying to accomplish.
If we don't know what the bull's eye is,then all the
daily interactions,the things we're working
(01:46):
toward week after week, monthafter month, year after year.
How do we know whatwe're trying to accomplish?
And so this today, we're hopingthat this gets to crystal clarity
so that, everything that we starttalking about and doing in our home
kind of works towards that end,working towards the same goal.
(02:07):
Yeah. Yeah, that'll be good.
Funnel it down.
It's great.
Well, let's talk about our families.
Tell me about your familygrowing up. Josh.
How did you get here?
Yeah, like my, mom and dad's family.Yeah.
So my parents, grew up Catholicand came out of that background.
They started dating when they were both, not Christians.
(02:28):
And my dad became a Christian.
He was, he was on the cross countryteam in, college.
And he they were driving backfrom a cross-country meet,
and he they had a long bus ride,and he was sitting on the window seat,
and he he would tell us as kidsabout how his teammate, you know, he had,
(02:50):
kind of I don't know, this is likesome kind of, like, evangelism method.
But he had them.
He had my dad trapped. He couldn'tget out. And it was a long car ride.
So he started asking himquestions about his my dad's faith
and where he thought he would end upif he died today.
And, you know, just started talking,
and sharing his Christian faithwith my dad.
(03:10):
And that got my dad thinking.
And, over the course of time,my dad came to faith
in Christ, and, he was dating my mom.
So at this time, he was a Christian.
She wasn't a Christian.
And so, of course,he wanted to marry a Christian woman.
And so he, led my mom to faithwhile they were dating.
(03:31):
And in their early years, of course,there, you know, they got married
and their brand new Christians,newly married.
And I came along fairly soon after.
I'm the first, firstborn of the family.
And so here my parents are prettynew Christians themselves,
with the newborntrying to figure out their own walk
(03:52):
with the Lordand growing rapidly in their own faith.
And then now they're trying to figure out,wow, you know,
everybody has been a parent.
You know, you hold your baby, your firstbaby for the first time, and you're like,
I don't know about you.
But for me it was like, well,this is a huge responsibility.
And it's kind of like the weightof responsibility hits you like,
(04:13):
oh man, I'm responsible now,
not only for this child physically,
but also everything elsespiritually as well.
And, you know, I can just imaginemy parents thinking that
this is fairlynew Christians themselves with myself.
So I'm a little bit of a guinea pigwith our family.
But my parents, you know, thankfulfor the local church and for,
(04:37):
individualsthat they were able to interact with.
And my parents were focused on the familypeople with Doctor James Dobson.
They learned a lot from himin those early years.
And others.
And, you know, I'm
as an adult now, I look backand I'm really grateful for my parents.
They were super intentionalin discipling us as kids.
(05:01):
And, and I would if you'd ask me,who are the most impactful
people in your life that have, shapedwho you are?
Your faith?
Top of the list is my dad and my mom.
Both of the both of them together,had critical, impactful roles.
So I'm really grateful for that.
We have a strong legacy of faithin our family.
(05:21):
And that that was true for me,as well as all my siblings.
And, we're all raising our kids, me andmy siblings, to raise, to love the Lord.
And as far as I know, everybody'swalking with Jesus Christ, today.
And that which is really rare in our dayand age and culture and,
you know, you know, thankfully,that's the grace of the Lord.
(05:44):
And we obviously are completely dependent
upon him for, for that continueto work in their hearts and lives.
But that's my background.
How about your faith background?
What about your parents?
Since you're similar?
Because my parents were not believerswhen they got married.
And so my mom grew up Catholic.
My dad grew up with,I think, no faith in his home.
(06:05):
And my grandparentscame to Christ as adults.
And they were my dad's parents.
Very open about that.
That like, I remember my grandpa evenjust saying, like, my life was changed.
The he he would sayI am a physically different person now.
And so my parents, did not know the Lordwhen they got married.
They had a full Catholic wedding.
(06:26):
And so like similar,they became Christians.
And then they really sought toraise us in a Christian home.
And I would say my mom,
especially like my mom, gosh,I feel like I'm going to cry.
She she passed away.
So I'm like, oh, maybe we should.
11 years agoyesterday was the anniversary of her.
(06:50):
I don't know, we call it death date,I guess.
And see, you know, moms and dads,they have a special place in our heart
and especially those that, were impactful parents that we truly miss.
Like your mom, we miss her dearly.
Loved the Lord so much.
So praise the Lord for herand just for her testimony,
(07:12):
and for how she lived her life so welland just really shared her faith,
not only with us kids,but with so many other people.
What do you think she'd say about,you and your kids
and the fact that this area of goodness,
the fact that you, like my mom diedas well, like 18 years ago.
So sometimes we think about, like,what would our parents say
(07:35):
if our mom's back today, like you have?
How many kids would my mom would say that?
You you're homeschoolingyour kids loved the homeschooling.
Yeah.
My mom didn't know we were doing that.
You you did live on a farm. At the farm.
My mom would be like, no way, Jenny.
No. Yeah, yeah.
But even though they're not herein, you know, physically with us,
(07:57):
their legacy lives on their faith
through us, with our kidsand hopefully with grandkids.
And that's, you know,I think sometimes the most impactful thing
in life isn't necessarily what we do,but it's who we raise.
What's funny is my mom used to say thatI remember her saying that to me one time,
(08:18):
and I remember being like, mom, stop it,you know?
But really like her.
There were three of us, three kids.
And like, all three of usare, like, doing pretty cool stuff.
And we have kids and raising our kidsto love the Lord.
And yeah, it's such, such a great legacy.
I guess all that to say, great legacy,right, in our families.
And that's a blessing, right?
(08:39):
That's a blessing to have thatand to be able to say that,
you know, in a world where a lot of peopledon't have great relationships
with their parents,or people can look back and say, oh,
I wish, you know,I wish my parents would have x, y, z.
But yeah, so, so fast forward to today.
What word
(08:59):
would you use to describehow you're feeling as a parent like today?
How am I feeling?
Well, that's a hard question, but
our dog pooped on the floor.
I was annoyed about the kidsletting the dog poop on the floor
right before we were recordingthis podcast, so.
But I'm just going to go high level.
(09:20):
And I would say I'm feeling grateful.
I love I'm so grateful.
I love these days.
We just kind of came off of a season of,you took the boys fishing.
I had the girls home for a week,and I literally every day was like,
I am so gratefulfor the time with these kids.
I love spending time with them.
(09:43):
And then when you guys came home,you know, we like we all like
stood in the driveway and we're like,we're all back together again.
And we did like a big family hug.
We were like, yay!
And I was like, I'm just so grateful.
I'm so grateful. That's how I'm feeling.
You're feeling greatdespite the poop on the floor.
All right. Well, how are you feeling?
(10:03):
What's your what what?
Yeah, I was I was decide between two.
I think I ended up with dependentbecause I feel like the Ben.
Yeah, I feel it's fascinating.
Yeah, it's kind of an interesting word.
I feel like we've done like.
Like if you think about a farmingmetaphor, we've done a lot of hard work
(10:25):
as parents for a lot of years,consistently over time.
But of course, we can't control the outcomes.
So like a farmer, you know, we havewe've readied the ground,
we've plantedthe seeds, we've pulled the weeds.
We have just we have worked so hard,
(10:47):
but we're dependent upon the Lord.
It's the Lord that brings the growth,and it is the Lord that changes
hearts and, draws people to himself.
So I feel dependent.
You know, we're in the seasonnow where we're starting to see fruit
and we're seeing outcomes and choicesand life decisions made.
And we're,
(11:07):
you know, I feel likeI'm really dependent upon the Lord
in prayer and, his workingand asking that he will take
those things that we have doneand really use them to shape.
Yeah, that our kids know, loveand serve him for their whole life.
I mean, that's what we want is we canwe can put our head on our pillow at night
because, we are, you know,we trust that God will be working and,
(11:31):
so that's my that's my word.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
And I love that.
Let's take a break to thank RenaultNation, the sponsor of this podcast.
If you've benefited from the GospelShaped Family podcast,
consider making a tax deductible donationto Renew the Nation today.
(11:52):
Your generous donations make this podcastand our work
to help childrendevelop a biblical worldview possible.
If you've enjoyed the episode,you can support us by leaving a review.
This helps the podcast growand reach more families.
Now back to the show.
Well, as we're talking about
(12:13):
capturing a biblical vision for parenting,I, I thought we should take some time
and talk about this studythat was done by a sociologist.
This is a fairly new study.
A sociologist named Christian Smith.
I'm going to read it. Two guys.
It was published in the Huffington Post.
And yeah, notyou're not you're bashing of conservative
(12:35):
like this is not focus on the fly.
This is the Huffington Post.
Anyways, so there was a studyand it was the focus
was the number one reasonthat teens keep their faith as adults.
Teens keep their faith in faithas when I hear that you like,
you've pulled me in like I want to know.
I want to know what you as a parent,
(12:56):
what is the most important thingaccording to this study?
Yeah, right.
That is, that contributes to a young adultkeeping their faith into their adult.
That's like this is tangible stuff.
That's like athat's a big statement to make this clear.
Yeah. There's athere's a Christian Smith said.
He said the Holy Grailand this is in quotes, the Holy Grail
(13:18):
for helping youth remain religiously
active as young adults has been the homeall along.
It has been parents, he said.
Mothers and fathers who practice what theypreach and preach what they practice
are far and away the major influence
related to adolescentskeeping their faith into their 20s.
Okay, so so let's translate that, if I,
(13:42):
if I summarize what he just said,I would summarize that as authentic faith.
Yeah. Practicing what you preach. Yeah.
You as parents, what we doand say, our kids watch it of course.
And they are making makingconnections between.
This is the faith that they saythey have, the things that are important,
things are actually living outin their own life, which makes total sense
(14:05):
if we say certainthings are true and important,
but then we don't livethose out ourselves.
I kids kind of make the assumption, well,
if that's not important for my parents,why should it be important for me?
They're not going to liveaccording to that, why should I?
But the flip side is pretty criticalthen, too.
If Mom and dad, do you think that's worthliving their life according to.
(14:28):
And they see that consistently,that often translates.
Yeah. According to Christian Smith, to,to children. All right. Keep going.
Amazing study.Okay, here's some statistics.
He came up with just 1% of teens, ages15 to 17, raised by parents
who attachedlittle importance to their faith,
were highly religiousin into their mid to late 20s, so only 1%.
(14:51):
So if their parentsdid not place a weight on that,
then they were not 1%.
And then in contrast, 82%, 82% of kids
raised by parentswho talked about their faith at home,
who attachedgreat importance to their beliefs
and who were active in their churchcongregations
and were themselvesreligiously active as young adults.
(15:13):
Christian Smith states the the connection
is nearly deterministic,so it goes hand in hand
if the parents are walking the walk 82%,that's of kids.
That's a big numberlike just here, that number 82%.
So maybe you've heardthe the phrase dropout statistics.
(15:36):
It's a pretty common phrase,especially in the church world.
We talk a lot about itas pastors with, children and youth.
Sit and the kind of the agreedupon number.
And there's been a lot of research doneon this.
Now, it's not, this is a it's a real thing.
And the findings,depending on the study, is
usually between 60 to 80% of young people,youth, young adults
(15:59):
will drop out from the church,walk away from.
Just stop attending the church. Yeah.
So walk away from their faith entirely.
It's like a super depressing thing.
When you start hearing those numbers,you're like, oh my goodness.
And you start thinking about your ownkids, of course.
Well, here'sthis is like the flip side, this study,
82% of children
raised by parentswho did who do three things.
(16:22):
And these three things are literallysomething that
every single parent listening right nowcan, can do.
No other.
Yeah, learning needed these three things.
Repeat them again.Jay talked about faith at home.
Talk about faith at home.
You can do that. Attachedgreat importance to their beliefs.
Attached great like that.
Your kids see that this isyou're your love of God.
(16:43):
You're followingScripture is of critical importance.
And then active in their church
congregation, active at church like, yeah,not on Sunday.
We're we're going to church.It's a family.
We're not letting other things come in.
It costs $0. I can we get it?
We can all do that now. We can do it.
The not encouraging for us as parentsthat were the most important influence.
(17:04):
Yes. That determines what what happenswhat happens with our kids faith
and those kinds of things.
That's a that's a good study.
Yeah. It's great.
Yeah.
So I'm just reading through the statisticshere.
Yeah. Yep.
So basically what the Bible has taught usfor thousands of years, authentic faith
lived out at home.
(17:24):
It shapes our children, shapesour kids children, lives at home.
Love it.
Okay.
Jen, I think we're switchingnow gears to an for a segment,
new we'rewe're introducing a new segment.
What is this called?
This segment is a segmentthat I like to call
stump doctor Josh who is just up to die.
(17:47):
All right. We go. Okay.
Now, just so everybody knows,I does not have I don't
I don't know any of this coming up here.
So this is Jen.
This is on the stump. That's all. Hear it.
And all the I'll hear all the, optionsfor the first time right now.
Okay. Now,like we talked about this and then.
(18:07):
Yeah. Okay, here we go. Right.All right, I'm ready.
What do we got?
Okay, I'm gonna hide my notes from you.Okay.
Question.
Is this how many times is the wordparent or parents used in the Bible?
Now, there's so many parents in the Biblethink there's so many parents
in the Bible.
But how many times is actualword parent or parents used?
(18:31):
Do I get optional?
I'm going to give you. All right.
I just have to like, like,take a random number out of nowhere.
Yeah, I get like ABC or something.
I'm going to give you four options.Four options.
Okay. 11.
No, 17, no, 21 no or 46.
That's it.I would have thought of hundreds.
(18:51):
I don't think so.
Is if parents parent or parents
okay parents this is the combo okay.
All right.
What were they againI'll say it again 1111.
Yeah.
17 1721 or 46.
(19:11):
Ooh. All right everybody, you have a 25.
Get your answer in your head. Right.
I'm going with C 21.
Yeah. You got it. Yeah. We all right?
High five.
Yes. You're so smart, doctor.
Josh. Wow. Okay, okay,so I'll just say I'm.
That was a total guess from nowhere.
Since lucky, I got it right.
(19:32):
Okay. Let me. We're going to do it.
We'll go ahead.
I was I thought there was hundreds.
Well, according to it says theI did some research.
Okay.
The word parent or parentsappears 21 times in the King James
Version of the Bible.
According to the KingJames Bible Dictionary.
Now, maybe, depending on translation,if you're ESV ING it, maybe there's more,
(19:54):
which is great, I like, but
I'm just saying, according to my research,I couldn't find a lot.
Okay, well, that's good, but there's notgoing to go from 21 to like hundred.
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.
Well, the Bible uses other terms
to talk about parentsto like fathers and mothers and.
Yeah, all that stuff.
So you include those inmaybe we get up to 100, but there you go.
(20:15):
Now, you could do a little, studyon your own devotionals, like.
Look, let's look that up now myself.
Go do that.
Yeah.
21 well, parentwe you know that's a good question.
Segment segueing into can I whatare we trying to accomplish as parents?
The Bible has a lot to say, whether it'sthose exact terms or some other ones
(20:38):
the Bible uses about,you know, what our role is
as parents, what we're tryingto accomplish as parents.
And, as we think about that, I,
we want to put together two passagesto help drive our activity
with what we're, with, what we're tryingto accomplish with our kids in our home.
(20:59):
I'm going to summarize thatwith this phrase.
The most important thing to get rightas a parent.
That's a pretty bold statement to make.
But if you would say make it. Yeah.
If you were to say,what is the most important thing
that I am trying to accomplish in my lifewith my kids?
What what is that?
(21:20):
And I think we get that outof Deuteronomy six.
Deuteronomy six five.
It begins with this commandment.
It says, that we are to love the Lordour God
with all our heart, with all our soul,and with all our strength.
Let me just read. Itsays, you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul,with all of your might.
And then, of course, it goes on to thatwell-known parenting passage
(21:42):
to, teach these thingsand press them on your children.
Talk about them throughout the dayas you get up and, you know,
as you rise and all that, you'reprobably familiar with that passage.
We tend to jump towards that portionof the passage, the kind of the
how to side,first thinking about like the,
the implementation of what God's calledkind of the how to side of parenting.
(22:07):
But you notice,I do want you to notice here where
parenting begins scripturally, it doesn'tnecessarily begin with the how to.
It begins with the whatand the what happens to be
what's happening in our own heartsas parents.
And so God actually calls us
to love him as the most important thingthat we get right as parents.
(22:30):
There's actually.
So we could summarize this as saying,
what is absolutelycritical is our affections.
And it's important for us to recognize,
that God calls us to love himwith all of our hearts.
And so this is kind of the assessment
piece John mentioned at the beginning.
(22:51):
What is ourwhat is our greatest loves in life?
What are our passions in lifeand what are our kids
seeing as we livethat out in front of them?
When we have a love that is
with some of our heart,and when we love the Lord
with some of our heart,that's pretty detrimental to our children.
(23:13):
When when God is second to anything,even if they're good things,
there can be some great things that wethat we prioritize in our life.
But if they if they are prioritizedin front of God, in our
in our finances, in our scheduling,in our decision making, that,
(23:33):
of course, becomes really problematicfor our children, because why
just like that study that you read,it goes hand in hand with this.
What do our kids noticewhen they see other things?
They notice what is your first love?
And they notice where your heart is.
And that is what plays outin the day to day.
Yeah.
So I think it's safe to say here
(23:55):
that children tend to gravitatetowards the passions of parents.
And you can maybe think about
what are things that you love in life.
Just right now, as a, as an adult,
not only, what you believe about,
God, Christ, but also even, like,the things you just
(24:17):
enjoy, you're like, yeah.
What are some, like, your hobbies in life?
I'm trying to think music and musicand gardening, being outdoors.
But stuff.
And how much of your loves, Gen,do you think came from parents?
Grandparents? Like,can you, like, trace those back up?
I think, yeah, definitely.I think that I love a lot of stuff.
(24:38):
My, well, because I spent so much timewith my mom and my grandparents.
So I definitely lovethe things that I learned from them
and like, just savor,that doing those things
now as an adult on my own,even though they're not with me.
I will throw in a little snippet herethat I was just messaging
(24:58):
with one of my cousinswho I haven't seen him in ten years,
and he, messaged me and was just talking
about the parents, my the impactmy grandparents had on his life.
And it's like,oh yeah, yeah, you're right.
That's 100% true. Yeah.
He loves working.
Construction tree.
(25:19):
He actually created a patent on,on something that the my your grandpa.
Yeah, yeah.
But those things do transferthose generational impact day to day.
What do you love
and how do you spend those timewith your kids and your grandkids
passing that on, whether it's your faithor just your hobbies, your interests, you
(25:39):
you like a lot of stuffthat you spent time
doing with your dad and your mom,fishing, hunting, all of that.
Jesus Christ, yeah, all those thousandpercent, all those things transfer down.
Yeah, yeah.
So, divided hearts tend
not to lead to devoted childrenfollowing Jesus Christ.
And so I think that's, you know, that'sa, that's a critical piece that we can
(26:00):
maybe just do a little self-reflection onwhere are your
where is your greatest love? Yeah.
And do your kids see that you arejust your burning
passionately for Christ.
And of course
everything in our life communicateswhat is what we're most passionate about.
That was actually one of the findingsthat Christian Smith said in that study.
(26:24):
The authenticity piece there.
And you see that, of course, it'snothing new.
What Christian Smith found iswhat we've known scripturally
for a very long time,and we see that in, in Deuteronomy six.
So that becomes, really critical.
So what would be a couple of goals
here that we,that we are trying to accomplish
(26:46):
as parents here are that,you know, the two passages I mentioned,
one is Colossians 128 and 29,which I'll read.
This is general for all Christians.
But I do believe it applies really wellto what we're trying to do in the home.
It says there's some summarythat says him.
We proclaim, of course, that's Christ.
Warning everyone and teaching
(27:09):
everyone with all wisdom that we.
And here's the goal that we may present.
Everyone's includesour kids mature in Christ.
And I love the second half of this year.
It says, for thisI toil, struggling with all his energy.
Notice that the Lord is God's energy,
(27:29):
with all his energythat he powerfully works within me.
Yeah.
And so it's God's energythat makes our work, our labor, valuable.
But there is a there's a, you know,there's a there's a dual process here.
We're working hard. God's working as well.
But I love that phrase here.
(27:50):
This, this idea of toilingand and everybody is,
working for maturity in Christ.
So I think the key principles this,your child's
maturity in Christ is your priority.
And so, you know, the world tells us,
we're trying to raise successful, healthy,keep him out of jail.
(28:14):
You know, I just want him to be happy.
That's a happy kid, right? Yeah.
That's what we're trying to raise.
And the course. It's not that we don't.
That we all want our kids to be happy, but
we want them to be happyfollowers of Jesus Christ.
Like, that's the that's where we want.
That's the priority. Yeah.
So that that word mature
(28:36):
literally means, ripeness of character.
It's kind of a fun wayto think about maturity.
It literally means that, you know,it's planted and it's grown to this.
It's ripe.
It's bearing this fruit.
And what kind of fruit mature in Christ.
So we can generally thinkabout the attributes
(28:57):
of what Christ likeness looks like.
You can think about that from Scripture.
Fruit of the spirit.
You know, we probably could lista lot of different kinds of things.
So according to the Bible, to be mature
is to actually have Christ like character.
So we can see that displayed in ourin our behavior.
(29:17):
That's where we truly seethe fruit lived out.
And we can generally measurehow we're doing in, in that arena.
But you know that Paul statesthat phrase for this, I toil.
And all of us as parents are toil.
Are we for something?
Yes, yes, yes, toil is something.
(29:38):
The question is
whether or notwe're toiling for the right thing.
So I think the weighty question here
for usas parents is what are you toiling for?
And we can see what the Bible tells usto toil for maturity in Christ.
We could just assess ourselvesaccording to that passage as word.
(30:01):
You know, just think aboutwhat you're doing in the home.
Where are you?
Where you were in the midstof another school year here?
Would you say that your goalfor this school year would align
with the kinds of thingsyou just heard here in Colossians one?
Or would you say, man,
I'm really toiling for some thingsthat that actually won't actually get me?
Yeah, that have no eternal valueto that outcome.
(30:23):
And maybe we need to make some some shiftsand changes in how we're operating.
Yeah. All right. The second goal.
Jen, do you want towhen I read, Psalm 78 for us.
Yeah, I'd love to.
Or is that even, I don't think we know we didn't have that.
We need a Bible.
Oh, no.
(30:44):
Podcast.
Find a Bible. Podcast. Fail.
We don't even have a we don't have. Yeah, you can look it up. There we go.
All right.
Okay, I will phone Bible here
we go. Here.
I'll read it.
All right. Hold on.
All right.
Jen is pulling up Psalm78 four through eight.
I didn't realize we didn't have that.That's what worries.
(31:06):
No worries. Look at it.
I you know, some people love their phoneBible, but I don't like a phone Bible.
I like a real that.
Yes. Okay.
Psalm 78, verses four through eight.
I got you.
All right. What do you do in Ksbw?
I'm an s vegan.
Okay, well, I'm going to change it then.
Well, no, let me see. Here.
(31:29):
Shoot.
I don'tthink I can because I need an update.
Okay, let me just read it this way.
Go for it.
This is wonderful.
Okay. Verses 438.
We will not hide them from their children,
but we'll tell a future generationthe praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
his might, and the wondrous worksthat he has performed.
(31:52):
He established a testimony, and Jacoband he set up a law in Israel
which he commanded our ancestorsto teach our children,
so that the future generation,the children yet to be born, might know
they were to riseand to tell their children
so that they mightput their confidence in God
and not forget his works,but to keep his commands.
(32:15):
Then they would not be liketheir ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,a generation whose heart
was not loyaland whose spirit was not faithful to God.
That's a great good in the CSB.
One of my favorite.
That's good.
Okay.
So I don't know if you caught therein verse seven it talks about the goal.
(32:39):
And I you know we summarize itas salvation and obedience.
That's our goal as parents.
So we you know we talked about tellingof the glorious
deeds of the Lord is might is wonders.
And then it talksabout teaching the law of God.
So we got two methods there.
And then in verse seven it says, so that.
So we do those things
(33:00):
so that, as somethat they might put their confidence
to God and not forget,not forget his work, but their confidence,
their hope in God is the ESV says, yeah,and not forget the work of God.
This obedience, peace.
So that's kind of ourthat's a big goal for us as parents.
And we can, you know, we can generallythink our maturity in Christ, salvation
(33:25):
in Christ, hope, confidence in Christ, not forget the work of God.
This so this obedience, peace.
Teach them God's commands.
So we're responsiblefor communicating the gospel
with our family,for pointing them to Christ.
That phrase, keep
his commands is kind of equivalentin my mind to the Great Commission.
(33:45):
Yeah. Teach him to keep his commands.
Teach them to obeyall that I have commanded.
So, you know, we look at thisas a family discipleship passage,
which is why we, wewe kind of talk about it.
So I think, you know, thethe assessment piece here
is, are the kind of daily
conversations, the decisionsthat we are making, the activities
(34:09):
in the homethat we are doing with our family.
Do they do they matchthese kinds of priorities that we see here
in Scripture, or do we need to realigncertain areas of our life to kind of,
accomplish these end goals with our kids
and having that kind of clear bullseye?
(34:32):
Yeah.
With what we're trying to accomplishreally, really helps as we
then think through, how we, you know,how how does it play out?
How does it play out if you have a target?
I mean, if you don't have a target,you're not going to hit it.
That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
That's good.
All right. Good. Well, this was fun today.
I was a kid.
This was a fun podcast day I love it.
(34:55):
Well good deal.
We'll be back againsoon for episode three.
That does it for today.
Thank you guys.
Thanks for being here.And we'll see you next time.
Thank you for listening to the GospelSheep Family podcast.
Please share this episodeand give us a five star rating
wherever you get your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.