The Ministry of Motherhood (Week 3)

You can read this on Jess's blog, too, but I'll rewrite some information from Sally's introduction to provide a little bit of a guide for how her book is outlined. She tries to think about parenting within the following acronym:

G represents the gift of grace (model grace so that our kids will, too)
I represents the gift of inspiration (viewing life in the context of God's purpose)
F represents the gift of faith (teaching and modeling faith)
T represents the gift of training (moving a child's character and habits toward God)
S represents the gift of service (ability to minister God's grace and truth to others)

Sally Clarkson begins with the gift of grace. What hit me hardest about her first two chapters was modeling Jesus's "unbreakable bond of a loving, serving relationship".

1 Peter 4:8 says, "Above all love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins." To me this is a call to give myself some grace. I am human. I will not parent perfectly, and that's o.k. However, I can provide my kids with a love that would cover a multitude of my mistakes as a parent. I love the concept of "loving well". Loving well means that I am patient, kind, and not easily angered. If I can provide this type of love to my kids then they will be more inclined to pay this type of love and GRACE forward to others.

Sally writes, "Only then, once the wells of their needs are filled with the grace of being loved, will my words to them about God's grace finally make sense."

I often migrate to the quick fixes. If she does THIS then I do ____. Clarkson reminds us that we serve our children best by providing them with loving discipline, BUT this relationship must come first. I have to be patient when Little Belle wants to read this SAME book over and over and over and over and over. To her it's about spending time with me, and sometimes I figure out ways for her to do some of these things independently. If I continue to foster this relationship now, then perhaps when she's 13 and actually wanting to spend time with me I will be very grateful for that time spent now.

Check out what Jessica at Who Left the Light On? had to say about the first two chapters of The Ministry of Motherhood.