Parents | Food for Thought

Suggested Passages

For everyone - parents or not! - what do you think drove your parents’ parenting from day to day? What makes you think that?
- If your parents were repeating things, telling stories, talking about something, putting things up around your home to point you to things - what were those things they were pointing you to? What do you remember them talking about, driving home, etc.? (Deuteronomy 6:1-9)
- How did they influence your understanding of the Lord or your relationship with him - for better or worse?
- How are you - as a son or daughter of the Father - letting yourself be parented? Do you love to obey? …let yourself be disciplined? …let yourself be loved and belong?
- How does having God as your Father bring you to the end of yourself… in a good way?

If you’re a parent, what do you feel like drives your parenting from day to day? There may very well not be one thing, but are there some things (desires, hopes, needs, logistical stuff, etc.) that drive those days more than others?
- When you think about your kids in the future, what are you hoping their relationship with the Lord will be like?
- How are those future hopes of joy - for your kids AND for you! (3 John 1:1-4) - driving what you do today?
- As a parent, how do you grow your child’s dependence on the Lord? What does it look like to “let your kids need Jesus?
- How does God’s love for His kids help you love yours? Does that feel like a crushing thing to live up to? …or does it feel like a gift?
What would you say drives God’s parenting - the way He fathers his kids?
- How does God love us with all he’s got? And how does that free us to do the same - and bring life to us when we don’t?
- What are we putting in our way throughout the day (habits, words, art, songs, readings, people, practices, etc.) that remind us of God’s goodness?