Redeeming The Time As Parents
Tom Cammenga offers pastoral counsel to Christian parents struggling with feelings of inadequacy in raising their children, emphasizing that parenting is fundamentally impossible without God's abundant grace. Drawing on the metaphor of gardening, he explores how parents as sinners must rely on God's sovereign provision and faithful love to nurture their covenant children in the fear of the Lord.
I recall conducting family visitation as an elder with a young family several years ago, and in our discussion, I asked a question to the young mother who, together with her husband, was in the midst of raising several younger children. The question was whether she was able to rejoice in the Lord and in His ways for her. Her response began with tears that slowly ran down her cheeks and then the confession that she often felt so inadequate as a wife and as a mother. Although I immediately wished...
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