God Our Father and how it impacts our relationships with our kids

Jessica Thompson's chapter on "God Our Father" in Everyday Grace is so good.  She reminds us about God as Father to us as how that should affect our parenting.  There are so many good things, but I will just share a few.  Pick up a copy for yourself. 

Those on whom God has set his love are no longer children of wrath, but have been brought into God's family and are now referred to as "children of God".

J.I. Packer writes, "To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the father is greater.

God is a good father who loves blessing his children...He is a good father who gives good gifts, always...He loves each of us as he loves Jesus.

The biblical definition of discipline, however, has no negative connotations at all. As a matter of fact, whenever God talks about disciplining his children, it is always in the context of love and delight.

We confuse God's wrath for his enemies and his discipline of his children, but the two have nothing in common. God has no wrath left for his children. He has only love and pleasure and delight...He poured out the full cup of wrath on Jesus. There is nothing left.

We often look for our identity in how our children act...Finding our identity in anything our children do, good or bad, will lead to either pride or despair.

This is where the majority of the church is today. We want our kids to behave, so we spend the bulk of our time trying to get kids to simply know and follow the rules. Too often we forget about their hearts...Bring them to the cross and show them their need for a Savior.