Creating Memories, Sidebar on Grace

As we take today to just meditate on grace, and especially as it relates to parenting (but obviously God’s grace is for everyone!! and the following quotes could be applied easily to others as well…), please remember that we would love to have you chime in by commenting and sharing your own thoughts on the subject of creating memories. Check out the intro here, part I here, fun quotes here and part II here…

Seeking to be faithfully obedient parents is our responsibility;
granting faith to our children is His.
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p53~

 

Works righteousness is a deadly and false variation of godly obedience.
Godly obedience is motivated by love for God
and trust in His gracious plan and power.
Works righteousness is motivated by unbelief;
it is a reliance on our abilities and a desire to control outcomes.
Works righteousness eventuates in penance:
I’ll make it up to you by redoubling my efforts tomorrow!
rather than repentance:
Lord forgive me for my sin today. Thank You that You love me in spite of all my failures.
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p55~

In parenting, works righteousness will cause us
to be both fearful and demanding.
When we see our failures, we will be overcome with fear…
When we see their failures, we’ll be overly demanding…
Works righteousness obliterates the sweet comforts of grace
because it cuts us off from God,
who alone is the giver of grace.
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p55~

When we’re quietly resting in grace,
we’ll have grace to give our children, too.
When we’re freed from the ultimate responsibility of being their savior,
we’ll find our parenting burden becoming easy and light.
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p55~

 

[C]hristian parenting books are not Christian if their primary message is law.
If their message isn’t rooted and grounded in the truth
that you and your children are deeply sinful yet deeply loved,
in reality it’s nothing more than a glorification of the will and work of the parent.
Aside from placing a crushing burden of guilt and fear upon the backs of dads and moms,
the thought that we can change anyone’s heart is laughable.
Change our children’s hearts?
Only God has power to change the heart!
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p161~

How desperately we all need to remember that there are
only two verses in the New Testament about Christian parenting.
Only two!
When we make parenting more complex than God has made it,
we afflict ourselves with burdens too heavy for us to carry,
and we are unintentionally presuming that the good news of the gospel is insufficient.
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p161~

 

When we forget the gospel and then feel guilty about it,
we are completely missing the point of the gospel.
Our ultimate joy as parents is not dependent on our ability to parent well.
God’s smile on us is not contingent upon anything
other than the record of the beloved Son.
It is based on our belief that Jesus has already done it all perfectly for us.
Grace simply means resting in Jesus’s blood and righteousness.
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p162~

Grace isn’t created by our ability to work at it or even remember it—
that’s why it’s called “grace.”
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p162~

Grace is not a thing.
It is not a substance that can be measured or a commodity to be distributed.
It is the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 13:14).
In essence, it is Jesus Himself.
~Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace, p162~