Sanctification—the way God works to resolve sin in the life of the believer—is evident in Scripture. Similarly, so is the utter pervasiveness of sin in the life of a nonbeliever. But, for some reason, when we talk about childrearing—about discipline, about “good parenting,” and “good kids”—our theology often gets a little wobbly. Per my parents’ stories, I was a well-disciplined,…
One day, quite some months ago now, E (who is two) responded to one of my reprimands with a violent, “But I don’t want to be good, I want to be BAD! I AM BAD!” Well, yes, yes you are, little one. You don’t even know how bad you are. Mommy’s bad, too. It’s called sin. It’s called needing Jesus.…
I was about as anti-cry-it-out as one can be without being a left-wing extremist post-hippie natural mama. Not that I’d go around telling other parents that they were traumatizing their children, but I’d sit there and be quietly smug about the fact that my child could rest assured that her parents loved her and met her needs. In my defense,…