I'm so excited about parenting seminar coming up soon. We have a wonderful opportunity to learn from Bob Kauflin. Bob is a well-known writer and speaker but also someone my wife Jenn and I know personally and who is someone we want to emulate in this area.

1. The Gospel We Sing on Sunday Should Shape Our Homes

I can testify to the fact that it's much easier to sing a song about the gospel on Sunday than it is to have that gospel shape your home. Our speaker Bob Kauflin has spent a lifetime helping the church sing songs about the gospel, but also spent a lifetime trying to make sure that gospel also shapes his home. 

I especially want to encourage everyone to listen to this excellent interview with Bob and his wife Julie on parenting. It will encourage you even if you can't come to the seminar, but it will also make you want to learn more. 

2. Parents Need To Be Encouraged

As parents it's often hard to see beyond the next meal (and fight with picky eaters), the next block of school work, the next explosion of toys in the playroom. We need times as parents where we step back and look at our parenting as a whole. What is our goal with parenting? (Just keeping everyone alive until adulthood?) What does the Bible say about parenting? How is our parenting doing when we compare it to the Bible? 

This seminar is an opportunity to step back and get some perspective from Scripture as we look at our parenting. It's an opportunity to find encouragement and hope as we look at the Bible. I've never been around Bob Kauflin that I have not left encouraged and in faith for following Jesus and I'm sure this seminar will be the same. The seminar is also an opportunity to find practical help. It's an opportunity to make sure we don't lose what really matters in the whirlwind of daily life. 

3. Parents Often Fall Into One of Two Ditches

Often parents can fall into one of two extremes. Some parents are all about discipline and training and are tempted to believe that if they can just fulfill their plans their kids will be model little Christians. Other parents can push back on those things in favor of grace and relationship and are tempted to believe that if they simply give their kids lots of love their kids will find their way to being happy little Christians. But either stream of parenting, if we're not careful, can miss important biblical principles and leave us in a ditch. And often, spouses default one way or the other, leading to conflict and frustration. 

That's why Scripture is so helpful. Scripture encourages us both to train our children actively as well as love them deeply and model the Father's love for them. As Bob discusses in his recent interview both are biblical and important. And it's only when both spouses have the same view that parenting (and marriage!) can flourish.