Parenting Beyond Your Capacity- Introduction

New Idea– Interact with parents who want to share their stories, struggles, and successes in parenting.

How? Read a book together and enhance life skills.

What Book? Parenting Beyond Your Capacity: Connect Your Family To A Wider Community By Reggie Joiner and Carey Niieuhof.  We gave away free copies of the introduction and first chapter over the last several weeks. If you didn’t get one, send me an email to [email protected]. I’ll get you the preview booklet sent in the mail this week.

Why? To make a positive impact on our individual families and our church family.  You are NOT alone. We are here to help.

And HOW WILL THIS WORK?

Each week, I or a member of our Family Ministry Team will be blogging on a chapter from the book YOU get to post comments, ask questions, and begin an online dialogue about what matters most- our families.  (You can also send a secure email to us at [email protected]. Christa Pratt, our Family Ministry Coach will help us to take special request questions that involve your privacy if so desired).

So What’s Up 1st?  The Authors write in their introduction.

The best thing about the beginning of this book is the admission by the experts that they are:

somewhat dysfunctional

a little insecure

More stressed out than we should be

Now, I feel better. It’s not just me who is NOT a perfect parent.

And I am pumped by what they say from the get-go- you don’t have to do this alone. You can become intentional about partnering with others who can also have an influence with your child.

How cool is that?! I don’t have to do it alone.

And what I rediscover all the time is that being a parent is a relational journey that never ends. Andrea I have three children- Princess Anna (23), Alexander the Great (20), and Dear Abigail (15). All of them are different and at different stages in their life and each is unique. But one thing is constant- we love them desperately and have given our lives for them. IN that way, being a parent is a lot like God loving us and creating us to love and be loved in return.

So What Do We Hope To Get Out Of This Interaction This Summer? CONNECTION & HOPE. We want you to feel connected even if it is by electronic means. We want you to know that there IS hope and that we can be “there” for one another.

We hope, along with the authors, that you will:

REDISCOVER your family’s role in a bigger story.

WIDEN THE CIRCLES of influence in the lives of your sons and daughters.

STAY FOCUSED on what REALLY MATTERS for your children’s future.

RENEW THE FIGHT for your closest relationships.

CREATE A HEALTHY RHYTHM in how you interact with one another.

LEARN TO LEAD YOURSELF as a parent.

Simple. Let the journey begin. Have a comment or question. POST AWAY! And have a great summer.