Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #207. Beyond Behavior: What Jesus Teaches Us About Parenting the Heart and Raising Impulsive children with Hope | John 6, Matthew 15 & Mark 7

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#207. Beyond Behavior: What Jesus Teaches Us About Parenting the Heart and Raising Impulsive children with Hope | John 6, Matthew 15 & Mark 7 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.
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  I'm Stephanie Hickox In today's recounting of John chapter 6, Matthew 15, and Mark 7 it might seem that Jesus has a bit of a PR problem.
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  But for those who have ears to hear He gives the best news possible Our reading for today is going to be John chapter 6, and we're going to pick up right after the feeding of the 5,000 in John
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  6:14 Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world."
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  So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.
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  Now when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
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  The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.
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  Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat, and they were frightened.
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  But he said to them, It is I.
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  Do not be afraid."
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  so they were willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
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  The next day, the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat, but that his
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  disciples had gone away alone.
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  There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
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  So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus.
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  When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here?"
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  Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
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  Do not work for the food which perishes, But for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on him the Father God has sent his seal."
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  Therefore, they said to him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God?"
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  Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."
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  So they said to Him, What do you do for a sign so that we may see and believe you?
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  What work do you perform?
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  Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.
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  As it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat."
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  Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.
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  For the bread of heaven is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world."
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  Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread."
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  Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.
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  He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.
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  But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
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  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out.
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  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
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  This is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds
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  the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of
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  heaven."
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  They were saying, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
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  How does he now say, 'I have come down out of heaven?'"
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  Jesus answered and said to them, Do not grumble among yourselves.
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  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day."
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  It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God.
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  Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
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  Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God, he has seen the Father.
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  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
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  I am the bread of life.
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  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
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  This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
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  I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.
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  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread also, which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, How can this
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  man give us his flesh to eat?"
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  So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.
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  He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
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  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
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  He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."
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  As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, So he who eats me, will also, live because of me.
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  This is the bread which came down out of heaven.
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  Not as the fathers ate and died, he who eats this bread will live forever These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.
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  Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a difficult statement.
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  Who can listen to it?"
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  But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, Does this cause you to stumble?
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  What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
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  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
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  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
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  But there are some of you who do not believe."
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  For Jesus knew from the very beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.
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  And He was saying, For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father."
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  As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.
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  So Jesus said to the 12, You do not want to go away also, do you?
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  Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?
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  You have the words of eternal life.
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  We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.
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  Jesus answered them, did I myself not choose you, the twelve?
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  And yet one of you is a devil.
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  Now he met Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray I know this is a long passage and it's a very misunderstood and complex passage even though Jesus is saying some
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  really complicated things, several times He makes it clear that this is a metaphor.
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  He says, "The flesh is nothing.
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  I speak of the spirit."
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  If you want to learn a little bit more about this blood and bread metaphor that Jesus spoke of, I'm gonna link to an article and a video explanation from Got Questions That breaks the chapter down a little bit,
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  showing each time that Jesus alluded to the fact that He was not literally referring to His flesh.
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  There are religious traditions even today that believe that when we take communion, we are eating Jesus's body, and drinking His blood But that's not consistent with Jesus clearly saying that the flesh means nothing and that he's talking about
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  the Spirit.
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  Jesus is right before them offering everything that they need But they're oblivious to it, and Part of that is because God hasn't opened their eyes can you picture yourself actually being there?
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  What if your pastor got up on a Sunday and said this?"
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  Would you start looking around thinking, "Is anyone else hearing this?
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  What is this guy talking about?"
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  It makes me think of different cults And radical things people have done to follow charismatic leaders throughout history.
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  and you think, "Why would they follow him?
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  Why would they do that?"
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  I can understand in hearing these words why they were confused and why many turned away But Jesus didn't come the first time to be elevated and to gain a large following In fact, it could have halted his mission
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  So God in his sovereignty Chose to blind the eyes of many who encountered Jesus though we're not there on the grassy green hill with Jesus eating the bread that He just multiplied, we get to feast upon the full
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  counsel of God's Word He has blessed us with a revelation.
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  He has opened our eyes and opened our ears.
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  What a treasure it is as they ask, what are the works of God that we can do?
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  Jesus tells them that the work of God is one requirement.
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  It's to believe in His Son Can you just take a deep breath that that's all that the Lord requires of you, that you believe in His Son?
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  Peter gets it I have a deep affection for the character of Peter.
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  He may have spoken impulsively many times, But he was also the first one to declare who Jesus was, to get out of the boat, and to step out in faith Today's account of Jesus walking on the water didn't
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  mention Peter.
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  But Matthew did in our last episode As far as we know, Peter was the only one that even attempted to go to Jesus His faith does not deny the reality that some of Jesus' teachings are difficult to hear
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  and understand Yet he still issues this beautiful faith-filled declaration, To whom shall we go?
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  You have the words of eternal life."
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  Peter understands that the one who just revealed himself as the bread of life is the Word of God And that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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  He gets it.
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  We have tasted of this eternal food How could we walk away after all that we've seen and heard and experienced?
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  Doesn't it break your heart That the next verse reveals that Jesus already knew that Judas would betray him.
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  In fact, he knew when he chose Judas to follow him But none of the disciples seem to know which one is going to betray Jesus.
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  Doesn't that show us That Jesus still acted in love toward each of the disciples And he didn't set his betrayer apart you, like me, might have a Peter or two or three or four in your home.
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  They're those kiddos that speak before they think do before they've considered and ride through life on the waves of impulsivity.
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  They're the kiddos that greet you joyfully at the door, even if you've left for a short time.
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  They're those kiddos that scream with glee on Christmas morning and are so grateful for your generosity they're also probably the kiddos that are quick to encourage others And if you're feeling discouraged that all of this investment that you're
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  making in your Peter just isn't bearing the fruit that you'd hope, stay tuned because when Peter's strength of conviction becomes surrendered to the power of the Holy Spirit, he becomes an undeniable force for the Lord It's one of
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  my favorite transformations in all of scripture while we're on the topic For some very important wisdom that is certainly a guide for us as we parent our kids, and as we seek to control our own mouths In Matthew
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  15, what's going on is that the Pharisees and the scribes are confronting Jesus because his disciples are eating, but they didn't wash their hands first I heard a pastor recently say, "Oh, I didn't realize that the Pharisees' names
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  were Karen."
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  Now, I love the name Karen, but these Pharisees are just oozing with legalism, it's hard to read without thinking how ridiculous they are In verse seven, Jesus says, You hypocrites Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said:
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  This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'
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  And he called the people to him and said to them, Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.'
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  Another translation says, Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks."
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  Now, this is important, I think, for two reasons.
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  Number one, we should not look at people's words alone.
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  We should look at the heart behind their words.
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  In our main study, Entrusted With a Child's Heart, Betsy teaches that the heart is comprised of three parts, the mind, the will, and the emotion.
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  And we don't just target a child's behavior.
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  We get to the root or the heart of the issue.
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  For example, let's say your child is working on a math assignment.
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  Internally, they're feeling stupid that they can't do it They break down crying And don't get the assignment done The correct training and teaching would not be to punish the child for their laziness.
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  It would be to address and correct the lies that they're believing To sit down with them and understand what's going on in their minds and their hearts, that prevented them from getting the assignment done If you wanna hear
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  more about this, as always, I'm gonna point you to our study, and the links are in the show notes.
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  But I'm so thankful that we serve a God that isn't about legalism and behaviorism but he cares about our hearts So for us as women that long to follow Christ, we wanna make sure that we just haven't learned
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  To talk the talk?
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  We wanna be transformed in the likeness of our Savior.
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  And as we're wanting that for our kids We shouldn't be training them to just say the right things but to be transformed in their hearts.
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  And for all of this, we desperately need the Holy Spirit to transform us.
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  Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your goodness that was displayed through Your Son.
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  We thank You that You are a God that opens eyes and ears, and that You've done this for us.
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  in return, we want our lips to bring You glory We pray with the psalmist that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart will be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer
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  When the things you call us to are hard, or even when we don't understand, we pray we would be surrendered because we know you are a good Father We pray that we would parent like you not legalistically or
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  behaviorally but getting to the heart of the matter so true transformation could take place.
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  And we know that our training and our instruction alone cannot produce this in our kids, so we ask for your Holy Spirit to be at work.
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  We ask you to continually plant seeds in our children's hearts Help us to be faithful to invest in the seeds that you plant, stewarding and watering So when we're following up with our children's disobedience or discouragement or defiance
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  that we would hear your spirit guiding us so we could be consistent yet careful to point their hearts to you We thank you, Bread of Life, for the ways that you sustain us, and we trust you to continue
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  to do so, Jesus.
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  It's in your name we pray.
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  Amen