There are a number of roles in life that no amount of training can prepare you for in advance. For example a soldier preparing for military combat will never be fully prepared in the military training base and must be thrown in the deep end of real combat to actually become a soldier! Well parenting is very similar… and the combat can be fierce!
Most parents will testify that when they had their first child there was a mix of overwhelming joy coupled with crippling fear and inadequacy. You have read books, chatted to existing parents, bought the clothes, come up with ‘a plan’, painted the room etc etc… and you think you’re prepared… and then the fun starts… and all your nice pre-conceived ideas of what “parenting” would be like are shattered and survival is the order of the day. Survival is success as they say!
In the middle of what feels like intense combat, after hours of sleep deprivation, it’s very hard to think clearly because surviving is all you have the energy for (parents often talk about a ‘fog’ that hangs over their lives for 1-2 years)! So parenting is not easy, even more so when there is only one parent on the scene. We need help, we need wisdom, we need reassurance, we need a community, we need older and wiser advice when we cannot think straight… and we need sleep!
Yet parenting is also wonderful and rewarding. That is why people often have more than one! In fact, having children was the first command God ever gave humanity, Genesis 1:28 says:
God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth…’
Just as God is a creator so we too, made in his image, are to join him in creating and bringing new life into the world. And whilst parenting is challenging, it is also hugely rewarding and children can bring a joy to parents that is often unmatched. They really are a blessing. In fact Psalm 127:3 says
Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.
Children are God’s gift to us and therefore we have the awesome responsibility to love and care for them, so they might become all God created them to be.
3-part seminar series
To help think through parenting in the modern world, we’re putting on a 3-part seminar series, on Sunday nights over zoom (7.30-9pm). Each seminar will be a mix of teaching from the bible on parenting, followed by discussion and Q&A. Steve & Leanne Vaughan (kids ages 13 & 12) will lead the seminars, but other parents will be sharing their wisdom, successes and failures too.
This is for CCC parents, but others are welcome to join, including those that are considering becoming parents. We will be teaching on parenting from a Christian perspective, using the bible as our main source of wisdom.
Here are all the details and date (7.30-9pm):
- Sunday 25th May – Biblical wisdom for raising children
- Sunday 8th June – Family Worship
- Sunday 6th July – The Tech-wise Family
The seminars are linked together so if you can make all the sessions you’ll get the most out of it. However they do ‘standalone’ if you cannot make them all. Any questions do email Steve or Leanne.
Please sign up for any or all of the sessions, and you’ll be sent the link to join on Zoom.
Resources
Over the coming weeks we’ll be updating this section with resources related to the different seminars…but for starters do watch the 17 minutes of hilarity from Michael McIntyre:
- 17 minutes of Michael McIntyre on parenting
Seminar 1 – Raising Christian Children (biblical wisdom)
- Trevin Wax – Spiritual Practices Common to Kids Who Flourish As Adults
- Lindsey Tollefson – Raising children in a gender-confused world
- Tedd Tripp – Shepherding a child’s heart or book review
- Rob Parsons – The Sixty Minute Father
- Podcast – Don’t Mom Alone
Seminar 2 – Family Worship
*Why & How Of Family Worship
- Jason Helopoulos
- Colin Hanson – someone will catechise your kids, don’t outsource it
- Keith Getty – becoming a singing family
*Resources For Family Worship – BIBLES
- Sally Lloyd-Jones
- The Jesus Story Book Bible – Ages 4-10+
- The Lift the Flap Bible – Ages 1-3
- Kevin DeYoung
- The Biggest Story – Ages 5-8 (read to me) Ages 8-11 (read to myself)
- The Biggest Story Bible Storybook – Ages 6–12
- The Biggest Story ABC Board Book – Ages 1-3
- David Helm – the big picture story bible
*Resources For Family Worship – BIBLE READING NOTES
- The New City Catechism – resource – Ages 4-10+
- Engage Bible-reading notes (13-18)
- Explore Bible-reading notes (adults)
*Resources For Family Worship – GREAT CHRISTIAN CHILDREN’S BOOKS
- Max Lucado’s Children’s books (‘I Am Special’ is a classic!)
- Tim Chester – Dragons & Dragon-slayers
- Andrew Wilson – The boy from the house of bread, Sophie & the Heidelberg Cat
- Rebecca McLauglin – 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity
*Resources for Family Worship – CHILDREN’S SONGS
- Seeds Family Worship on Spotify – all the songs are bible verses
- Michael Tinker songs – our kids loved the topsy turvey jungle which we listened to on 100s of car journeys. You can find him on facebook
- New Wine Stand Together – another favourite of our kids for car journey sing-alongs
Seminar 3 – The Tech-wise Family
- Jon Haidt – 2min video – love your children by keeping them off social media
- The Social Dilemma – www.thesocialdilemma.com
- Andy Crouch – the tech-wise family (summary from author, review from TGC , and talk from author)
- Andy Crouch – the life we’re looking for (reclaiming relationships in a technological world)
- Patrick Parkinson – the loneliness of the digitally connected
- Social Sanity in an insta-world, book and book-club recordings
- Podcast – Scrolling Alone: How Instagram Is Making a Generation of Girls Lonely, Anxious, and Sad
- CCC Seminar blog & recording
Raising Children in a city
- Andrew Wilson – The advantages of raising children in the city (summary of Tim Keller’s talk)
- Kathy Keller article – why the city is a wonderful place to raise children.
- Tim Keller Talk – it takes a city to raise a kid
More to follow…watch this space.
Please find the Powerpoint here: