There is only one perfect father; our Father who is in heaven! And there is only one perfect son; the Son who came from heaven. And there is only one perfect father/son relationship. The relationship between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no such thing as a perfect parent! We all make mistakes. No Mom or Dad will ever look back and say they did it perfectly. We don’t have to be perfect. But we do have to be consistent. And we have to be authentic.  “Do as I say” alone will never cut it. We need to both show our kids what it looks like to walk with Jesus, and then help them along the way.

Your goal is that they'll grow up to be passionate Jesus followers, whatever they choose to do with their life and calling.

Christopher Coffman is a pastor at a great church in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Recently, Christopher wrote a blog post simply called “Intentional Parenting”. As I read it, I wanted to share it with you. I pray you’ll be encouraged as you realize we're all in this together, facing the same struggles, and experiencing the same victories. Here it is, with Chris’ permission:

Several years ago, my wife Julie and I were invited by some friends of ours to attend an Intentional Parenting conference that was being hosted at their church. At the time, I remember feeling utterly exhausted and defeated as a parent. Much like a deflated Tom Brady after Sunday’s Super Bowl game, raising kids has a way of knocking the wind out of us at times. If you’re a parent, you’ve been there. As parents of two crazy, beautiful boys (Hayen, age 12; Asher, age 8), we’ve seen our fair share of ugly losses. Some days, life seems to blitz our best-laid parenting plans and strategies from all sides. No matter how many books or blog posts we amass, there is no one-size-fits-all formula when it comes to raising kids to love and follow Jesus.

Then again, in keeping with the sports metaphor, maybe parenting isn’t about trick plays or complicated schemes at all. What if it’s about building a tried-and-tested playbook for raising passionate Jesus followers?

In hindsight, that’s exactly what Julie and I walked away with when we attended the Intentional Parenting conference years ago. Hands down, it was the most practical, encouraging resource we’ve ever received as parents. Three years down the road, we still regularly revisit the scriptural principles and tools we learned from the conference when addressing new challenges. Although we’re certainly not Super Bowl parents by any stretch of the imagination, we are raising our kiddos with a much clearer end zone in mind: We want our boys to grow to love Jesus and others with all they’ve got! That’s the “win” we’re working toward each and every day.

Thank you Chris! I couldn’t say it better! 

We want our kids to be with us for all eternity. And we want them to hear the same words from Jesus we long to hear from Him someday:

Let’s keep on showing . . . keep on loving . . . and keep on praying that it will be so!

Phil

P.S. Our next Intentional Parenting Conference is going to be at Chris' church, River West, in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The dates are March 9-10. There’s still time to sign up, should you want to attend.