14 Feb Parenting – Chapter 10
Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family by Paul Tripp
Chapter 10 – Karen Alston
We all recognize the importance of good character. In the grammar school, our character education and development are part of our culture and promote an application to the child’s heart of godly, Biblical character. We seek to avoid merely disciplining bad behavior and attempt to speak to the heart of the child.
There’s a natural progression from Chapter 9’s focus on the foolishness of the heart as the cause of disobedience to Chapter 10’s emphasis on character, apart from blatant disobedience or defiance. The most frustrating behavior in our children is that which demonstrates selfishness, thoughtlessness, lack of care and character.
On page 139 the author states: Much of our struggle, as parents, is rooted in the fact that God is still working, with the zeal of transforming grace, to mold new character into our hearts. …When you confess that, when it comes to character struggles, you are more like your children than unlike them, then you deal with situations when character problems are revealed with patience, kindness, and grace. This confession frees you to see these moments… as… moments of grace.
Romans 1 points out how character issues are connected to worship. Our hearts can be controlled by love for the Creator (worship) or by craving created things (idolatry). Often, our problem is not that we desire bad things, but that we become enslaved to good things. Check out the list of bad character traits that result from wrongful worship.