Parenting – Chapter 2

parentingParenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family by Paul Tripp

Chapter 2 – Joe Haferbecker

In the second chapter, Tripp focuses on present grace. As parents, we must understand the grace that God extends to us every day, moment by moment. Tripp elaborates on how nobody is truly able to parent. Parenting is an unfathomably large task, and God does not call us to do it because we are able. He calls us to do it because it is part of His design, and He is prepared to give us the needed, present grace to pull it off. Tripp writes, “God calls unable people to do important things because ultimately what He’s working on is not your immediate success, but that you would come to know Him, to rest in His grace, and to live for His glory.”

He goes on to explain the danger of being an “Able” parent, that is, the parent who does not recognize their own need for grace. He says that “Able parents tend to assume their children should be able too…pride themselves in keeping the law…[and] want their children to be their trophies.” The parent who understands their own dependence on God’s grace understands that we are continually being delivered from our own sin, the result of which is a tender heart and a humble disposition from which we can parent without holding on to regrets that come from the inevitable mistakes we will make.

This chapter reinforced something I have long thought as a teacher, but Tripp articulates it much better and gives it a much sounder context. After having taught for a number of years, it finally occurred to me how foolish it was to be frustrated with my students for not being the very people I was there to train them into being.