For some time I have really been contemplating what it means to be a successful parent. I have a few insights on the topic that have been influenced by other peoples ideas of what it means to be a successful parent but I have never really sat down and tried to define on my own a successful parent. As a Christian my starting block would have to be scripture. I believe like most that it begins with an understanding of Deuteronomy 6:1-7. As a responsible Christian parent I will take to heart the commandments of the Lord for myself as well as impress them on my children, talk about them when I sit at home and when I walk along the road, when I lie down and when I get up. This is really self explanatory. However when I begin to consider many of the models that define successful parenting I see a contradiction with the words of scripture.
For instance; many would agree that successful parenting would involve preparing our children financially for their future. This could be the result of passing on wealth to our children or simply instilling in them the need to achieve their own wealth. There is nothing wrong with this in its most simple terms. As we commit to allow scripture to determine what it means to be a successful parent the idea of wealth takes on a contextual meaning that is not completely in sync with the American dream.
An honest review of scripture would tell us that we should prepare our children to understand achievement or wealth as accepting God's call on their life to a degree that results in an abandonment to anything that would anchor them to their own ambitions. Achievement and wealth are defined in worshiping and serving the eternal God. In scripture wealth is defined by ones dependency on God and His provisions being sufficient without regard to proportion. Opposed to the American dream that tells us achievement or wealth is directly related to proportion.
In the biblical model of proportion, one is expected to adjust their lifestyle to God's provision regardless of proportion. Doing God's will becomes the object of contentment even when suffering or selflessness is demanded. With a biblical understanding of wealth we prepare our children to accept God's call "comfort or suffering" to be the most high mark of achievement or wealth. If we take to heart the understanding that to successfully parent our children means to teach our children to honor God in times of abundance as well as in times of need we will raise a generation who will abandon it all regardless of the cross the Lord may ask them to carry.
The Great Commission generation is among us. As we begin to nurture our children to become absolute disciples of Christ we will begin to see the Lord of the harvest prepare the laborers before our very eyes. My friend Daniel Tyler's valediction is "Til the nets are full". I truly believe the generation among us could be the generation that experiences torn nets due to the weight of harvesting. It will be because of their understanding of wealth being measured on an eternal scale verses a scale that is temporal and subject to the elements, trends and greed of this world. This will only occur as successful parents define wealth for their children.
God Bless,
Todd
