Family Friday Links 10.14.16

Here is an article to help to find joy in parenting. David Mathis wrote this article entitled, Happy Daddy, Happy Home. Mathis writes, " Yet you can’t consistently and convincingly express a delight that you don’t have. The first step, Ajith says, before expressing joy, is experiencing it — and the transcultural key to learning delight in one’s children is finding God’s own fatherly delight in us as his child. It’s one thing to hear and confess, but another thing to truly know and enjoy."

Jen Wilkin posted on the Gospel Coalition that talks about the value of children and the fact that  kids are our neighbors. Wilkin's writes, Because if children are people, then they are also our neighbors. This means that every scriptural imperative that speaks to loving our neighbor as we love ourselves suddenly comes to bear on how we parent. Every command to love preferentially at great cost, with great effort, and with godly wisdom becomes not just a command to love the people in my workplace or the people in my church or the people at my hair salon or the people on my street or the people in the homeless shelter. It becomes a command to love the people under my own roof, no matter how small. If children are people, then our own children are our very closest neighbors. No other neighbor lives closer or needs our self-sacrificing love more."

This week John Piper on Desiring God had an interview that discussed Preparing our Kids for Suffering. Piper says, " In fact, I would say that the greatest challenge of parenting — at least, I look back over, what did I parent? 42 years or something like that, so far — the greatest challenge of parenting is not primarily remembering all the things that should be taught in the catechism, but primarily being a parent growing in grace and humility and trust and joy in all the ups and downs of life. Few things will have a greater power in our children’s lives to help them suffer as Christians."  

John Murchison at The Verge talks about Instilling Identity in Your Children on Halloween. Murchison says, "In our home, we have chosen to celebrate Halloween as a fun, cultural holiday. We love making the kids’ costumes and joining with our neighbors in trick-or-treating. However, my wife and I also feel strongly that the dark, scary, and evil parts of the holiday are not to be celebrated."

What have you been reading? Please share in the comments!