Parenting, like all of life, is a matter of faith. This means that from time to time parents ought to be faced with situations that completely overwhelm them. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, including your kid’s freedom from this or that situation, sin or difficulty.

It’s easy for parents who are conscientious in how they teach, discipline, and nurture to be surprised when they are stumped and brought up short in childrearing issues. But this is a wonderful reminder that we train up our children on the bedrock foundation of God’s promises, and not on the strength of our competence and applied techniques.

This faith doesn’t relax or go limp when sin is present or resign to unbiblical standards or self-justified laziness. It doesn’t scrap proven and promised biblical standards and methods (e.g. Prov. 22:6, 15). It looks for answers, confident they will come, in small and large deliverances.

This is the sort of faith that can say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” both as a statement of current affairs and as a prayer of confident hope in the God of generations.