The What’s in the Bible? team is passionate about kids, families, God, and faith – we spend a lot of time thinking, watching, praying and reading about those topics and how they intersect. As part of our ongoing desire to serve our families well, we are launching a new blog series called the Editor’s Round Up. Our goal is to bring together the best of what we’re reading on the web – our favorite articles, editorials, and blog posts about kids, families, and faith. Enjoy!
This month, I was drawn to articles about fear and faith, about parenting with a posture of trust – something I struggle with on an almost daily basis. My little girl is 14 months old, teetering on the edge of toddler-dom with all the innocence and energy she can muster, while her dad and I lay awake at night trying to wind down from days of hyper-vigilance. She’s more fun than she’s ever been, but all of the sudden when she took off running on those two tiny feet, she pulled our hearts right out of our chests. Every tumble and every tear remind us how fast she’s growing, and how good it is, but also how much responsibility the Lord has entrusted to us.
At every turn this month, I was reminded that He is faithful. And He can be trusted, even with this worrier mom’s biggest fears and insecurities. As she takes her fragile first steps, so I take mine … deeper and deeper into the waters of faith.
Sharon Miller’s Hashtag Courage spoke volumes to my fearful heart. The sometimes What’s in the Bible? blogger wrote on her own site She Worships that she prays “for the courage to parent them that way. I hope to be the kind of mother that launches her children, rather than hanging on, desperately trying to protect them.” Sharon, a mom of two, includes a list of questions to help gauge what we as parents really mean when we say we want to raise brave kids.
Writing on The Gospel Coalition’s blog, Cameron Cole asked Do Christian Parents Flirt with the Idol of Safety?. To me, this is hardly a question – I think our entire culture values safety almost more than anything else, which is completely natural. But when does the “American Dream” rub up against our callings as Christian parents? Cole writes, “We like their commitment to Christ when it means good moral choices and a sense of spiritual fulfillment. But what happens when they embrace the gospel to a point where life gets financially challenging, or even physically dangerous?”
Nashville blogger Nathalie Hope writes on her blog Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer about Tips for Training a Wild Thing, which stood out to me from the second I saw the headline. (We joke that our girl is 100% wild – a silly, magical, spunky kind of wild that keeps us more than on our toes!) Nathalie gives great encouragement to those of us with naturally adventurous kids – “God began to whisper to my weary soul – reassuring me that wild would serve him well, and would be a necessary tool for walking out the calling He had placed on his life.” What a sweet reminder – God has knit together our children with the perfect fabric for the wild adventures He has planned. May we remember – and give thanks! – for that gift.
Pastor and author Scott Sauls’ post called God’s Gift to Cripple-Hearted, Fragile, Fearful People Like Me rounds out this month’s great reads. He writes about the extraordinary gift of special needs children, and how our own “fragile fearful” hearts are changed by parenting and living in community with kids of all kinds. “We need them to raise us as much as they need us to raise them,” he writes.
However God is molding and shaping you, and raising you up as His own precious child as you are raising yours, we pray that His faithfulness, peace and mercy surround you and your family this week.
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness’ he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
Do you struggle with fear and parenting? How has the Lord worked in your life to help you see His faithfulness in the midst of anxiety?
Melanie Rainer is the Director of Content for What’s in the Bible? and the editor of the What’s in the Bible? blog.
