Patient Parenting: A Course of Christian Encouragement for Parents

Being a parent is a challenge. Whether you are struggling to keep all the balls in the air as a single parent, trying to balance the responsibilities between two parents, or find that correct work / family balance in your day-to-day life, parents today are pulled in so many different directions. And that’s not even considering how pulled our children are as well, who can often be over-scheduled and worn down.

When all of these things are tearing at us, it can reduce our ability to handle conflict in our families and it can cause us to lose patience with those we love and cherish the most. The heartache that results from that failing can cause even more hurt and stress, which only feeds the cycle.

As parents, we need to anchor ourselves not only in what God expects of us as parents but in what our heavenly Father has done for us. When we see ourselves as forgiven children of God, that is how we can raise and direct our children in a way that will be beneficial to them physically, emotionally, and especially spiritually. The motivation to do all of this and do it well comes from Jesus’ cross and his empty tomb. We love everyone, but especially our families, because he first loved us.

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and School will be a hosting a three-session course that will allow us to focus our attention where it needs to be--first on our Savior and then on our children--so that we can be the parents that God asks us to be as we raise our children “in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

The subjects we will be covering over these three sessions will include:

• Developing trust between parent and child
• Helping children see their Savior’s love no matter what happens
• God-pleasing and God-centered discipline (including the appropriateness or inappropriateness of time outs, spacing, and establishing other consequences for misbehavior)
• Coping with ADHD or symptoms thereof
• Fostering a loving family home
• Encouraging growing in learning
• Instilling compassion in your children
• Dealing with the temptations of drug and alcohol use
• Helping children deal with the concept of death and loss
• Anger management and finding spiritual strength
• When parents and other family members disagree
• Dealing with the dynamic of siblings
• Teaching God-pleasing attitudes about sex
• Dealing with struggles in school such as difficulty learning or wrestling with homework

The three sessions of this course will be held on Saturdays October 11, October 25, and November 8, 2014, from 2:00-3:30pm each afternoon. The cost for the course will be $40 a family, which will include a copy of the book Patient Parenting: Raising Your Kids in the Shadow of the Cross by John Jeurn and other course materials. If you would like extra copies of the book, they will be available for $15 each. Childcare will be available for those who would benefit from it.

To register, please click this link. To ensure we have enough course materials on hand, please register by Thursday, October 2! If that date has passed when you’re seeing this and you’d still like to attend, register and we’ll do what we can to make it work!

For more information please contact Pastor Tim Shrimpton, visit our website at www.gdluth.org, or call the church at (650) 593-3361.