Recommendation
Acknowledgements

01.
Father God
_ Raising children makes them long for God

02.
The most heartbreaking pain
_ Courage to allow your children to face adversity and hardship

03.
The Treasure Hidden Behind Guilt
_ Parenting teaches you how to deal with guilt

04.
The moment heaven is captured
_ Parenting teaches us how to hear God's voice.

05.
Oh, this joy!
_ Raising children brings God's wonderful joy.

06.
A terribly helpless position
_ Raising children develops the courage to face fears.

07.
Burning love
_ Parenting teaches you how to deal with anger

08.
Glory Beyond the Ruin
_ Parenting is about seeing glory beyond appearances.

09.
Even a child who is particularly difficult is a gift.
_ Parenting teaches patience, endurance, and longsuffering.

10.
The Most Boring Chapter in the Bible That Will Change Your Life Forever
_ Parenting teaches you what is truly important in life.

11.
Mother's Tale, Mother's Tale, Mother's Tale
_ Parenting encourages the development of our character.

12.
sacrifice
_ Raising children teaches us sacrifice.

13.
Sending off
_ Parenting moves beyond control and fear to trust and hope.

14.
The prize you will receive
_ Raising children is a sacred calling.

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01_ Father God
Raising children makes us long for God.

My husband and I have benefited greatly from many parenting books and seminars, but we have also come to realize that our children have shaped us.
Parenting is not a one-way street, it's a two-way street! Our children have taught us how to sacrifice (Chapter 12) and how to deal with guilt (Chapter 3).
He taught us the art of listening and made us kneel down and pray (Chapter 4).
It showed us how to laugh (Chapter 5), how to grieve (Chapter 9), and how to live bravely (Chapter 6).
And it made us realize our own shortcomings and our need to depend on someone greater than ourselves (Chapter 13).
One of the most influential things I know in spiritual formation is the experience of raising children.
The process of raising children is one of the greatest spiritual training journeys a human being can embark on.
Unless we are spiritually cold, the journey of caring for, raising, training, and loving children will leave an indelible mark on us.


02_ The most painful pain
Courage to allow your children to face adversity and hardship

Divine parenting leads us to choose service and character over a life free from hardship for our children, thereby maturing us as parents.
If God allowed His Son to suffer, and if He is our example as a father, then it stands to reason that there are times when we too must watch our children suffer for the greater good.
So parents, take heart.
Occasional frustration and anger are fleeting and then disappear.
Do not abandon eternal truth for temporary gain.
And we must use such seemingly negative events to teach them to become more committed and to rely more on God.

03_ The treasure hidden behind guilt
Parenting teaches you how to deal with guilt.

If this book were a methodology book, I would feel quite guilty.
It's not hard to instill guilt in any parent.
We are not raising robots.
We are raising people who bear the image of God the Creator.
We seem to have a tendency to give ourselves too much credit when our children do well and too much blame when they do badly.
When we look back on our own parenting, we see missed opportunities.
I see my character flaws being reproduced and even amplified in my children.
When children rebel, we naturally blame it on missed opportunities and their own character flaws.

Listen to Samuel Syndrome.
Even a faithful servant of God may have one or more children go astray.
Also listen to the Ahaz Syndrome.
Even with wicked parents, very godly children can be born.
We are not the best parents.
Absolutely not.
We lack wisdom.
I don't even know how it all fits together.
We make mistakes and spill things.
You can make mistakes in everything you do.
But God looks at us with the pleased eyes of a father.


04_ The moment heaven is captured
Parenting teaches us how to hear God's voice.

Parenting becomes sacred by hearing God's voice.
God longs to speak to us and is able to communicate with us despite our imperfections.
The practice of listening, as long as we listen humbly, can transform our homes, our lives, and our relationships.
Thankfully, this listening exercise, so crucial to the art of parenting, also serves as a wonderful spiritual exercise for our prayer lives.
Yes, that's right.
Parenting can teach us to pray.
True spiritual listening is crawling up into God's lap, resting safely, and hearing His kind words of love, acceptance, correction, and challenge.
The child's ears could hear the song that I couldn't hear because I was too busy.
It wasn't until I truly heard the child's joyful reflection on what had seemed like an ordinary day that the song finally made sense to me.

05_ Oh, this joy!
Parenting brings God joy

“God, I thank you for working in my daughter’s life.
I thank God for sanctifying my son.
We are grateful for the joy of living with our children.
“I am grateful for the privilege of spending my life with them.”

Christianity fits perfectly with humanity's deepest needs because it focuses us on enduring joy rather than inevitable, superficial, and temporary sorrow.
There is no joy like the joy of God.
There is no family like God's family.

06_ A terribly helpless position
Parenting teaches children the courage to face their fears.

Parental cowardice is born from the curious compound of parental authority.
In the process of raising children, two contradictory things happen simultaneously.
That is, it gives us unprecedented power, but at the same time it makes us as helpless as we can be.
This is the harsh side of divine parenting.
That is, giving to children who do not know how to benefit from the good things they receive, constantly walking through the "valley of the shadow of death," trying to raise them to be godly despite being cursed at by their children, and crucifying our tendency to be liked by people.


07_ Burning Love
Parenting teaches you how to deal with anger.

As we raise our children, we inevitably become more mature in dealing with more subtle emotions, especially anger.
Lewis's stark words present us with a frightening crossroads.
Either live as an 'unawakened soul', or draw near to God and enter a world of righteousness and religious insight, but accept the temptations and evils that come with it.
Those who choose to become parents have already decided to enter a more sacred world of righteousness and religious insight.
This is where the Lord seems to be calling us to the spiritual training of surrender that the ancients spoke of.


“Don’t give easy answers.
Don't try to relieve the burden of being with someone who is grieving by trying to make them forget or 'get over' their grief.
It is a completely self-centered religion.
Instead, cry with them.
Take time to cry and be in pain.
“It’s okay to be angry, but don’t lose faith.”

Just as God's character is revealed in His responses to His children, so too is our parenting revealing our character.
Divine parenting takes us into a messy spiritual reality.
Unfortunately, we cannot avoid that fact.
To avoid this reality is as sinful as to boast about it.


08_ Glory Beyond the Broken
Parenting is about seeing glory beyond appearances.

The positive spiritual benefit is that it gradually shifts our focus from superficial appearances to the impactful aspects of meaningful relationships.

09_ Even a child who is having a particularly difficult time is a gift.
Parenting teaches patience, endurance, and perseverance.

Indeed, there is a treasure at the end of the road here.
No matter how difficult a child may be, God can and will use that child to mold our souls into the image of His Son, Jesus.
No matter how many bumps we hit and how many twists and turns we must take on our way to our destination of raising children, God, as promised, guides our steps, strengthens our ankles, and revives our souls.
He knows our needs and reminds us of the provision of Jesus and the comfort, guidance, and power of the Holy Spirit.
All of this is more than enough to meet our needs.
Even if we don't always see the results we want, at least God constantly reminds us of His patience and longsuffering toward us.
Parenting may not be an easy journey, but in this respect, it is truly a sacred journey.

10_ The most boring chapters in the Bible that will change your life forever
Raising children teaches you what is truly important in life.

Divine parenting calls us to focus our short lives on the things that will have the greatest impact on future generations.
We will soon be forgotten on this earth, but we will be remembered forever in heaven.
Let us humbly accept this fact.
And let us accept God's sacred trust in us to care for our children.
We must reorder our priorities based on our own relative insignificance and ultimately learn to think like God, transcending generations.
We are born, we die, and thus make way.
But those who understand parenting as a sacred journey and act accordingly leave behind something amazing and lasting.

11_ The story of the mother and son
Parenting encourages our character development.

I am not confident that I can do as well as Paul, who told others to 'follow my example'.
I hope Graham, Ellison, and Kelsey are better than me in some character areas.
But it is not as important as Paul's confidence or lack of it.
Reproduction is already taking place.
Therefore, I have no choice but to ask:
What should I do? We cannot avoid leaving footprints.
Having children has an impact on other lives, possibly for several generations.
The only question is this:
In which direction will our footsteps lead our children?

12_ Sacrifice
Raising children teaches us sacrifice.

Children can be extensions in God's hands, teaching us how to embrace the important spiritual discipline of sacrifice.
It is our duty to give our children our full attention and best efforts.

13_ Letting go
Parenting moves beyond control and fear to trust and hope.

Parents must learn the crucial spiritual lesson of nurturing their children with intelligence and care, but at the same time, they must allow them to naturally and gradually become independent beings.
Ultimately, faith is not the power to get what I want, but the attitude to accept what God gives.
Raising children is truly a prestigious school of spiritual training.
This is an amazing journey.
It's a satisfying journey throughout, even if it takes a while.
...
Guiding our children to their final refuge, while learning in the process to trust in God, to rely on Him, and to rest in Him—this is the essence of divine parenting.


14_ The prize you will receive
Parenting is a sacred calling.

The essence of divine child-rearing was glimpsed in a flash.
During this amazing and bizarre journey, I felt compelled to face whatever challenges lay ahead.
...
The challenge is not over.
Learning continues.
But there is one thing I know.
Parenting is a sacred calling.