MORE LIKE YOU, JESUS: TRANSFORM MY PARENTHOOD

TRANSFORMING THURSDAY:

HOW GOD DOES FAMILY

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

"Now the Lord is the Spirit;

and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

18 But we all,

with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror

the glory of the Lord,

are being transformed into the same image

from glory to glory,

just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

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Mirror, mirror on the wall, do you see the Lord in my parenting at all?

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I have been on my knees so many times begging the Lord to give me His wisdom as a parent. I have pleaded with Him to help my kids to forget all the times I messed up. Unfortunately, I did mess up a lot! I've asked Him to give my children a huge spirit of forgiveness!

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We talked about some things in our HOW GOD DOES FAMILY class last night that are good for all of us to consider. Two of the ways that GOD models His parenting are in the area of POSITIVE COMMUNICATION:

1. He asks questions and listens – allowing His children to explain their actions.


2. Repetition! Repetition! Repetition! He keeps hooking back to or building on what He has previously taught us saying, "Remember! Remember! Remember!"

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Steve showed a video clip of a couple working on their communication skills! It was funny and full of something that most of us tend to do... ASSUME... MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. We do that with our spouses...we do that with our children. Two ways to correct that problem is with more open communication full of positive questioning, positive listening, and positive repetition - just like GOD modeled in Genesis. I'm sure GOD already knew what had taken place but He patiently asks the questions to give Adam a voice. Notice His questions highlighted in bold...

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  Genesis 3:9-13
  “Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him,
  "Where are you?"
  10 And he said, "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."
  11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
  12 And the man said, "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."
  13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
  And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
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In class we looked at some scenarios with parents and children. In these scenarios it would have been easy for the parent to jump to conclusions quickly and do some negative questioning like, "What in the world were you thinking?" "Are you crazy?" "What do you think your father will do with this information?..." In the case of a conflict, it's often best for the parties to seperate for a little while and then come back together and discuss via positive patient questioning.

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GOD also models the use of positive REPETITION over and over and over and over again in scripture. He uses the word REMEMBER. He knows that we are good at forgetting! Unfortunately, too many of us have heard or said negative phrases along these lines like "If I've told you this once, I've told you a thousand times!" or "If you don't remember this correctly, I'm not sure that you are ever going to amount to anything." This, of course, is not how to repeat or remind!

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GOD wants us to make the connections with what we've learned in the past and how it applies to the present situation. He did this in Ephesians to remind christians of their past...where they'd come from and where they were going. Here it is in part...

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"Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands — 12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ..."

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I am so thankful that our Heavenly Father is such a positive communicator. He listens! He asks questions! He reminds us when we forget! In His great love, He wants us to stay focused on what's important, so He reminds us where we have been, where we are, and where we are going! That's called exhortation! I want to be more like Him!

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Join us tomorrow for FAMILY FELLOWSHIP FRIDAY

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Since it's getting close to the holidays, think of some kind of game that you have played together during the holidays with family that still brings back great memories. Share it with us tomorrow OR better yet, post about it on your blog and link back to it.

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Thanks for stopping by... and keep remembering to say:

"MORE LIKE YOU, JESUS!"

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