On Shepherding A Child's Heart (Ch 1 and 2)...

I love how this book breaks down biblical truths and applies it to how we raise our children! I am trying to ingrain in my head that my child’s behavior results from an overflow of the heart; as a matter of fact all of our behaviors are simply the overflow of the heart. So you literally must get to the heart of the matter!

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23

As water reflects a man’s face, so a man’s heart reflects the man. Proverbs 27:19

God does not look on outward appearances, but he looks at our heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) The book discusses how Jesus felt about the Pharisees who honored God with their lips, but hearts were far from them, and it wasn’t good. So, we as parents must learn how to get to the heart of the behavior. What is causing the behavior? Figure it out and then instruct from that issue, not the behavior. Unfortunately the book does not list every example that you will encounter, and it would be almost impossible to do this in that the reason a child does something is different from another child. Their hearts are different, but many of the basic principals are the same and in Chapter 2 you begin to learn what things shape a child’s heart and therefore behavior as they grow up. These life experiences effect the way a child responds to circumstances in the future.

Shaping influences are those events and circumstances in a child’s developmental years that prove to be catalyst for making him the person he is. (Tripp 10)

There are 6 different shaping influences discussed and are all things that make up family life, but it brought up a very important point at the end of the chapter dealing with mistakes we make in understanding shaping influences. One of them being the idea that your child is unaffected by their early childhood experiences; which to me was obvious, but important to note. The other is the idea that if you do everything humanly possible to control the shaping influence and shelter your child that you will have a golden child; the book calls this determinism.

Your children are responsible for the way they respond to your parenting (Tripp 16)

I have to understand that if I read all of the right books and do everything in my power to raise my children right in the eyes of the Lord, they may never choose to follow Him. Does this stop me from praying for my kids every night that their eyes would be open to the gospel and that the Lord would give them an understanding of His truth…I will NEVER stop praying that and my hope is that they will follow the Lord faithfully. Even more so I want God to be glorified in my family and I trust Him.

Chapter 2 also points you to great scripture that is necessary for biblical child rearing and I recommend reading all them; Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6, and Colossians 3.

In other news we have had a few "snow days" (more like ice days), but we made the most of it.


Then Riley watched Sleeping Beauty and became one herself...


Discussion Question: Why do we tend to simply correct behavior instead of getting to heart of the issue?

Mandy