Sunday, March 30, 2014

Discipline = Discipleship

Our MOPS Group at Grace Evan is sooooo blessed and privileged to include over 10 Mentor Moms who are precious to our group and so sweet to offer insight and advice based on their own parenting experiences. The March meeting focused on the topic of Discipline and the message came from a panel of our own mentors. 'Queen Mentor', Patty, led the way in shaping the young minds of our moms to think of disciplining our children in a new way. I found myself hanging on to every word and I thought the message was spot on. The excerpt below summarizes the message.

by: Patty A.
Discipline and Disciple clearly come from the same root word.
 
Disciple means (verb) 'to teach, to train, or bring up' and (noun) 'pupil, student, follower'.
 
Discipline means (verb) 'to bring a state of order, to train, to punish' and (noun) 'instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge'.
 
To understand how to discipline effectively, we need to know how to disciple our kids.
Most of our daily discipline or teaching is actually behavior modification.  We need our kids to learn how to behave in a certain way.  This is very important.
However, because of the intensity of your day-to-day life, I fear we lose the big picture, and that is parenting with an eternal goal.  Discipling is a matter of the heart.  What kind of person do you want your child to become 30 years from now?  What kind of character do you want him/her to have? When you get a fix on that, then you can parent toward that end.  Keep in mind, THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES!  The Bible is full of stories of GOOD parents raising bad kids and BAD parents raising good kids and vice-versa.
 
The good news is that Jesus' primary prayer, purpose and passion were to provide the way for us to BE THERE with Him in eternity.  In Dr. Dobson's book Life on the Edge, he relates what he told his son Ryan:  "When the time comes [to die], there is only one thought I want to leave with you . . . BE THERE [in Heaven].  Do not let anything deter you from keeping that appointment . . . This is the only thing of real significance in your life . . . above every other purpose and goal, the only thing that really matters is that you determine now to BE THERE!"
 
I pray this is your ultimate goal as you parent with an eye on eternity.  If you believe that Jesus died for you and you receive Him as your Savior, you will have eternal life in Heaven with Him.  Jesus is the Answer.
 
In His Love,
Patty
 
Recommended Book List (mentioned by Mentors):
Love & Respect in the family - Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
Creative Correction - Lisa Whelchel
Focus on the Family App
Praying the Scriptures for Your Children - Jodie Berndt
Parenting By the Book- John Rosemond
FaithTraining by Joe White
A Place of Grace by Susan Hunt
Teaching your child how to pray by Rick Osborne
Age of Opportunity by Paul David Tripp
Jesus Calling for kids- Sarah Young
I Believe in Jesus- leading your child to Christ by John MacArthur
A Faith to Grow On by John MacArthur

2 comments:

  1. Okay! I have a question! I came home from MOPS and tried to tell my husband something I learned that I just LOVED, and I could not remember it all!! HA! I think maybe Leesa Davis was talking about this......She said there were three things your kids need (or something like that..), but you have to be sure to do them in the right order. Unconditional love and _________ must come before you give them rules/regulations from God's word. If they don't feel unconditionally loved first, the rules and regulations will just lead to rebellion and resentment.....and probably just behavior modification---not heart regeneration. Can anyone fill in that blank for me? :) ~Julie Davis

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  2. I believe it was Diane.
    Unconditional love, boundaries, and the gift of Gods word. You must have the first two gifts (in that order) before you can receive the gift of Gods word.

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