Education Update: Parenting Class

This past week we’ve been studying the roles and responsibilities of parenting by using this curriculum.  We think this topic is very important not only for those residents that are expecting a baby and need to be preparing for the job but also for the rest of the residents who are benefitted from an honest evaluation of how they allowed themselves to be parented.
Biblically, we understand that since the very beginning of human history on earth we have been in a position of needing the leadership, protection, and provision from God as our Father.  We were designed to flourish under his authority, need his counsel, and revel in his care.
Interestingly, we don’t often make the connection that being the kind of parents God asks us to be allows us to grandly demonstrate his parenting over us to the rest of creation.  This lesson series is intended to help make that connection for the girls at VOH.
Quite honestly, it’s one of the harder lesson series to teach.  It’s easy to see the Biblical standard of parenting and then compare your experience against the standard in an unkind and judgmental way.  It’s also hard to confront past problems, especially when abuse or trauma has centered around your relationship with your parents.  But even with all of those “hard” truths, it is so good for the VOH girls to learn what is really required of parenting, what kind of truths children need to be taught, what loving discipline looks like, and to finally understand the whole goal of parenting and being parented…being brought more and more into the image of Christ as the way of being most pleasing to God.
Please be praying for the girls as they digest what they are learning this week, as they process how their hearts have mishandled previous opportunities, and how they need to plan for future growth. 
Deuteronomy 10:17-19 “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.”
Jocelyn Wallace
Jocelyn was the executive director of the Vision of Hope residential treatment center (www.vohlafayette.org) on the campus of Faith Ministries until 2013. Her experience in the biblical counseling field goes back to 2002, and includes work in parachurch organizations and Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries.