Shepherding a Child’s Heart #9

I am continuing to Chapters 16 and 17 in Tedd Tripp’s book Shepherding a Child’s Heart. Meredith and Karen are in on this too.

Chapter 16, Childhood: Training Objectives and 17, Childhood: training Procedures

In these chapters Tedd Tripp discusses some specifics of child training in children ages 5 to 12. While change is the word he uses for the previous developmental stage of infancy to childhood (ages 0 to 5) in this stage he use the word character. These are the year that the child’s character is being developed. This is where this book has been the most beneficial to me. Most of my children are in this age bracket. The idea is not to establish more rules but to expose the child’s heart so that he can see “Who God is” and “Who he is.” This is the gospel essentially. I can see some mistakes on my part as I look back over the years. I am a rule person. If there is a problem, I try to solve it with a rule. As the gospel has continued to make inroads into my own heart and life, I have thrown off a lot of the “Christian Rules.” I have found great acceptances and freedom in the Lord. (It was for freedom that Christ has set us free…do you sing that one any more Karen?) I can see how this is inconsistence in the way I have been training my kids. They don’t need more rules either they need the Lord! They need to see they need for a savior. The need to see that he covers them too. It is a difficult thing to confess who I am and the things I do (even to date) and they have the same difficulty. Their nature is as sinful as mine. But when I am honest and truthful and confess the Lord always covers me and there is grace and freedom. I desire for them to experience that too.

I pray and ask
that the Lord would give me compassion and patience in this task of training the children he has given me just as He is with me.