I CONCUR!

Raising children = mentoring them = training them to do your job!

Parenting to raise parents

What’s your mission as a parent? Would it change if you could look back on 35 years of experience? Today on Home School Heartbeat, host Mike Farris talks about the goals of parenting—and how his understanding of them has changed over time.

Mike Farris:
My wife Vickie and I became parents in June, 1975. Our 10th child turned 13 this year. So, if you adopt the bar mitzvah view of passing from childhood to being a young man at 13, we’re finally done being parents of a “child.”

If you earned “credit” for parenting the way you calculate academic teaching credit, we would have 230 years of parenting experience. I’ve learned a lot in these years. The first lesson is this: the goal of parenting is to raise good parents.

In 1975, I thought that my goal was to raise good children. I wasn’t wrong, but it was a very incomplete description of the task.

You are mentoring your child in the literal sense. You are training them so that they can do your job. Explain what you are doing just as you would train a new worker on the job.

Both Vickie and I have inherited strengths and weaknesses from our own parents. We are responsible for what we do as parents. And to be sure, Vicki and I have changed some things from the way we were raised—homeschooling being the most dramatic example and courtship training being the second most important—but we’re clearly influenced by the way we were raised.

Parent your children in the manner you want to see your children parenting your grandchildren—and explain what you are doing. Parenting is first and foremost a teaching responsibility.

I’m Mike Farris.

God help us to make ALL parenting decisions in reverence of You. AMEN.

father and son biking

I love watching Phill and Isaac interact. My 2 year old son and my 29 year old husband have such a deep love, a strong male bond, and an unbreakable adoration for one another. Phill and I have made a conscious decision that we will love all our kids with an unconditional, grace-giving kind of love especially when they make mistakes. Our Father God, thank you for the children You have blessed us with. They are adorable, gifted, funny, crazy, and not at all perfect. We pray that You will continue to work in their lives and reveal Yourself to them as we help them seek Your face every day. Raise them up to be the Ruth, Esther, Nehemiah, Elijah, and Paul etc etc of their generation. Give us clarity of their strengths and weaknesses and teach us to teach them Your ways. In Jesus' name I pray. AMEN.

I love how Isaac says, "Daddy wait for me!"


Phill took a half day off of work for memorial day


We love our Abigail


We love our Isaac


We love our Esther

You Are My King

this guy dennis jernigan was at our church today with his pastor, jack taylor, who is a evangelist pastor. i pray one day the Lord who sings over us will give me songs like He gives him. like how the Lord granted Elisha twice the spirit that Elijah had. Lord, thank You for all you have done in my life. You are my King. Teach me to teach my kids that we serve a King in heaven. I still have a desire to write Kingdom songs. humble me and teach me. use me and speak to me. AMEN.

not into teaching fairy tales and such

so much to say since i haven't blogged for so long. but we have decided to introduce fairy tales to Abigail in ballet form. we have not introduced any fairy tales or magic to our kids. we had decided long ago to focus on God's words and truth before they are exposed to these things. kids can't tell real from fake so we didn't wanna confuse them or lie to them. this ballet from sleeping beauty is so beautiful, i had to post it. but this month, we have been listening to lots of tchaikovsky, so i think we are picking one of his ballets for Abigail to watch. oh and snow white afterward. it's CUTE!





Lord, thank you for our precious children. continue to give us wisdom in parenting. Amen.