TLP 76: Parents Who Do | Peaceful Parenting, Part 7

Hearers don’t have peace. If you want to be a peaceful parent, you need to be a doer. Join AMBrewster as discusses the final parental Peace Prerequisite.

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Episode Notes

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Transcript

Introduction

​Thank you again for joining us. Today we discuss the fifth and final Peace Prerequisite and get a full picture of the type of parent we need to be if we want to experience incomprehensible peace.It’s possible, but it will take some work. But don’t worry, God doesn’t leave us to accomplish what’s only possible through Him. No, He gives us everything we need for life and godliness.

But more on that in a minute.

We have an acronym we use a lot at Truth.Love.Parent. It’s LSR and it stands for “Listen, Learn, Subscribe, Share, Rate, and Review.” Subscribing, Rating, and Reviewing you only need to do one, but Listening, Learning, and Sharing can be done all the time. If you haven’t done all six of these steps, will you consider embracing LSR for us? We’d greatly appreciate it!
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​Once again, I cannot being to express the blessing this study has been to my soul. Just like you, there is so much in my personal parenting and my professional parenting that dangles huge temptations to anxiety and anger, but God’s truth has bastioned me and Christ Himself has taken charge of the garrison keeping a daily watch over my heart and mind. So, thank you for this opportunity to study God’s gracious, ever sufficient truth with you.

Topic

I foresee that — including today — we have only two more parts of our study left. Today we’ll look at the last Peace Prerequisite and next time we’ll see the final Peace Promise.

If you are new to our study, I strongly encourage you to start with episode 69. The experience will be immeasurably valuable.

But even if you’ve been with us since the beginning, it’s important to have a quick review:

1. Our Responsibility to God

• At the beginning of our study we were reminded the absolute necessity of finding our joy in God. Psalm 33:1 says, “Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!” 
• Our joy can’t be founded in things like our families, jobs, 401-k, or houses. We can’t allow our happiness to reside in obedient children, pleasant spouse, or decluttered garage. 
• As Christians who have been saved from eternal damnation and temporal impotence, how could we not rejoice in our God. And again, I say rejoice.

2. Our Responsibility to Others

• When God, His Word, and His will are the only things that bring us true happiness, we will strive to live His Word and Will.
• Everyone around us will be beneficiaries of our gentle spirit.
• And because we have the Holy Spirit in us and the future expectation of the return of Christ, we have all the power and motivation we need to love everyone — no matter how unlovely.

3. Our Responsibility to Ourselves

• But there will be times when we broken people living in this broken world are tempted to fear and anxiety. 
• In every single situation we must run to our highest joy — the very throne room of God and poor out our prayers and supplications. He’s the one who matters. He’s the one powerful and wise and loving enough to know what to do.
• And I take it to Him with thanksgiving. I can do this because I’ve bathed myself in His Word, I know His promises, and I joy in Who He is and the relationship we have.
• Our Responsibility to Reality
  1. God’s reality is the only reality. Everything else is a delusion. 
  2. Therefore, I need to align my thoughts with God’s reality.
  3. I will only dwell on that which is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellence, and praise worthy. Because those are the only realities.
  4. Why bother functioning off a delusion.

And today we look at the fifth and final parental Peace Prerequisite from Philippians 4.

But first I have clarify something. Do you really want peace in your parenting? I know it’s easy to say you do, but if you’re not willing to intentionally and premeditatedly take steps to be the parents God wants you to be then you have to get real with yourself and admit that you don’t really want God’s peace.

What do I mean by that? It works like this.

Sometimes what we want is the destination without the journey. You want a fit body, but you don’t want to embrace the diet necessary to attain it. You want a higher standard of living, but you don’t want the non-existent weekends and overtime necessary to make the extra money. You say you want peace in your home, but you’re not willing to really rejoice in God, be gentle with your kids, shun anxiety by thankful prayer, and think in a sanctified way.

If that’s the case, the best thing you can do for yourself is admit that you’re not really interested in God’s unfathomable peace, but that instead you really want everything to go your way and for everyone in your family to be okay with that.

And you know as well as I do that that’s never going to happen.

But if you really do want God’s peace, and you’re really interested in fulfilling your responsibility to God, others, yourself, and reality, then you’re ready for the fifth and final Peace Prerequisite.

5. We have a responsibility to our leaders.

Conclusion

​And to help you understand and review it, we have free episode notes for you linked in the description of today’s show. 

On our next episode we finish our study in Peaceful Parenting by looking at the second Peace Promise in Philippians 4. I hope you’ll join us as we put on the finishing touches, stand back and enjoy the immense vista that is God’s promise of peace, and then roll up our sleeves and take our first steps to being an intoxicatingly peaceful parent.

​See you next time.