Parenting Seminar

You know, this week has really given me more evidence that God really does hear my prayers. He listens and when I am genuinely seeking Him, He answers.

I got up on Monday and went to MOPS. I explained already how that went for me. While at MOPS I found out about a parenting seminar that TCS was putting on at Cedar Creek Church on Tuesday night, last night. Deborah from MOPS has children that attend TCS and she was giving out tickets to go to this event to see Josh McDowell speak.

I was able to arrange child care on short notice and accepted the tickets. Rob's on second shift so he wasn't able to go. After being there I wish he could have. I have a couple of Josh's books and new that it promised to be a good evening of great parenting advice. I rode with my friends, Josh and Melanie and we met, Holly & Tim, Angela and Charlene and three of her older kids there. Surprisingly we ran into Andy & Barb Lauer, as well.

The first half Josh spoke about having convictions. He defined conviction as knowing what you believe, knowing why you believe it, and living it. His research says that 95% of Christians do not have any convictions. They may know what they believe but they can't give you a logical reason why they believe it's the truth and he didn't even want to go into how they aren't living it. Faith is the usual answer of why we believe something is true. However, faith is a product of truth, not a producer of truth. We have faith in something because we believe it to be true, we don't believe something to be true because we have faith in it.

So many people today don't know how to defend the Bible's truth. But time wise there is more evidence for the New Testament being true than there is for any of the writings of any great thinker. The oldest manuscripts of Aristotle are 1400 years removed from his originals. The oldest manuscripts of Sophocles are 1500 years removed from his originals. Meaning the oldest copies we have of these authors were copied over and over and over for 1400-1500 years. The more something is copied the more likely there are mistakes today. The New Testament manuscripts that we have in existence today are only 50 years removed from the originals. Meaning that they are most likely 1st-5th copies of the originals.

Today only 7 of Plato's manuscripts exist, only 49 of Aristotles but with the New Testaments today we have 24653 manuscripts that we can use to verify authenticity of what we call the Bible today. These two statistics when added up make the New Testament 99.5% pure text.

Now, this is meant to be an argument to use on scholars and skeptics who trash the Bible. But with 99.5% pure text, I'll take on faith that the other 5% has been protected.

We learned about four lines of reasoning that skeptics have when looking at the Bible and how to rebutt them.

1) We can't trust the authors. However, most of the writers were eye-witnesses of the activities written in the New Testament. Mark was a scribe writing Peters first hand story. And Luke was hired to verify all that was being written and witnessed, finding it all true. (I John 1:1-3)
2) The writers just wrote what they wanted people to believe. However, because these writings were written when eye-witnesses to the events were still alive these writings were scrutinized. (Acts 2:22, II Peter 1:16) The readers of that day were there, they saw what happened. If one of the biblical authors lied or made things up or exaggerated they would have been called out on it. If Jesus didn't say "I am the truth" it would have never made it into scripture.
3) People die for lies all the time. Yes, lots of people die for lies but they always believe its the truth. 11 out of 12 of the disciples died horrific deaths because they believed that what they saw and experienced was the truth. Not once did they deny it. (Acts 1:1-3) If it were a lie, they had to know it was a lie and they wouldn't have all died for it.
4) People might argue that lots of people die for a cause, but the disciples great cause had died on the cross. Why would they have died for a cause that was already proven false? Unless the resurrection really happened and they again had a great cause to die for.

Now, you may ask, all this ties into parenting how? Because we lose our kids spiritually (and sometimes physically and definitely emotionally) because we can't give them answers. Real answers about our faith. The stats used to say if your kid wasn't a believer before the age of 18, they probably never would be. Now that age has dropped to 12. If you child doesn't know what they believe and why they believe it by the age of 12 - they probably never will. That's scary! No, That's terrifying.

The answers to my prayers came in the second half...the first half was great but it really made me think of even more reasons I've made a mistake putting Jourdyn in public school.

So my prayers were answered in the second half.

Truth without relationships leads to rejection.
Discipline without relationships leads to bitterness & anger.
Rules without relationships leads to rebellion.

And as much as I am involved in my kids lives and as much as I do with them. I learned that I'm not doing enough or at least not the right things. Josh McDowell gave 7 A's of building relationships with your kids (really it works with any kids that you have in your life whether yours, or grandkids, or students).

1) Affirmation of Emotions - Romans 12:15 - gives them a sense of authenticity
2) Acceptance - Unconditional - Romans 15:7 - gives them a sense of security
3) Appreciation - Matt. 3:17 - gives them a sense of significance
4) Availability - Mark 10:14 - gives them a sense of importance
5) Affection - John 12:13-16 - gives them a sense of lovability
6) Approach their world - I Corinthians 13:5 - sense of your being interested in them
7) Accountability - gives them a sense of responsibility (and love as well)

Looking at these 7A's - I can see exactly where I have failed, exactly where I have fallen short on accomplishing these tasks. Or more so the importance of focusing on these things everyday not just randomly. So if you come to my house and see the 7A's hanging everywhere - please know its because I need a reminder to be there for me and I need to memorize them and apply them.

I know this is a long post but I have to tell you one more thing that Josh said that I really liked. When we quote Scripture to others, but we aren't living it - we're sinning!!!!!