Hi everyone. I’m Dawn Heckert from Christ Community in Leawood, Kansas. And as a children’s pastor and a mother I have to tell you the idea of being the spiritual primary leader in my children’s life was terrifying to me.
My husband and I did not grow up with strong faith models in our homes. We had parents who actively took us to church, but they didn’t understand the everyday role of pouring into our lives a faith that would last a lifetime.
I Was Intimidated by My Role
And so my husband and I were very intimidated by that. We were very frightened by that. And we came across this wonderful book called Spiritual Parenting. And it wrecked us.
It should be like a Super Bowl commercial that comes with those horrible warnings of all the side effects. We would suddenly experience a loss of control with forgiveness. We would show extreme bouts of mercy. And we would recognize that we ourselves were sinful.
A Lesson My Daughter Taught Me
One of my favorite things about that book was a line that said, “You are not a perfect parent, but our God is.” And that released my husband and me to realize many things.
One of the greatest examples I can think from when we were going through that book for the first time happened with our oldest daughter.
She’d had a situation at school where a child had done something to her that was very dangerous. And I’d received that horrible phone call from the school that said, “Your daughter was attacked today. Here’s what happened and the child apologized.”
We would suddenly experience a loss of control with forgiveness. We would show extreme bouts of mercy. And we would recognize that we ourselves were sinful.
In my human nature, that was not enough. An apology just simply didn’t cut it. I remember sitting on the bed with my husband and my two daughters that night and we were praying for this situation.
And I just wanted to go over to that family’s house and just tell them how awful their child was and how they were doing a horrible job at parenting. In that moment the Holy Spirit used my daughter to course correct my own life.
And she said, “I think we need to pray for him. His life is very hard.” And that started to season of prayer for us for this young man and that relationship between him and my daughter became a long friendship.
What Spiritual Parenting Is All About
I think that’s what spiritual parenting is all about. It’s not an idea of setting up if you do these steps, you’ll be a successful primary leader in your home. But, rather, it’s the idea of taking everyday moments that you come across and recognize your humanness to want to judge or correct other people’s lives and instead let God do that for you.
As a parent I can tell you spiritual parenting has released my husband and me to have the same vocabulary and to be able to always articulate to our daughters what we are hoping for them and from them in their relationship with Christ.
It has allowed me to instruct other parents on how they can create environments in their natural flow of life on the road when they’re taking their kids to school, at soccer games, as you’re putting your children to bed. There are just these great tangible ways to tell God’s story and to give them the blessing of God in every moment of every day.
Two Resources You Should Consider
I have to tell you, if there’s one thing that I would say shaped my husband’s and my life and my ministry as far as equipping families to know their role as primary leaders in their home, it would be Spiritual Parenting.
And I’m thankful for the HomeFront magazine that came alongside it and gives us everyday moments and ideas of how we can do that in our own homes through cooking and conversation and just reaching out to our neighbors and living a life on mission for Christ.
Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?
Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?
