Faith-Based Parenting When Life Is Overwhelming

Why our kids need faith-based parenting

As Christian parents, we want to raise our children in the faith.

That means we’re teaching them and helping them build their own faith… but it also means that we must be living out OUR faith in our parenting.

Faith-based parenting is about letting our faith lead us in our parenting. We’re teaching the faith and living out the faith, all in the day-to-day context of family life.

This probably sounds a lot easier than it really is! But day-to-day family life can be tough.

We get overwhelmed. We get stuck in a rut. We get discouraged by sin. We get frustrated by miscommunications. We get trapped in our own emotions.

Parenting is hard work!

But not only do we parent according to what our faith says is good, true, and right – we also have our faith to lean on when we’re struggling. Our kids need us to be dependent on the Lord. They need the peace, joy, hope, and grace that only Jesus can bring into our lives. And through us, into their lives too.

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The basics of faith-based parenting

When we read the Bible from start to finish, we see a lot of directions from God about how we should live our lives.

We can zoom in on the New Testament and still see a lot of requirements for faithful Christian living! But parenting isn’t about a secret formula. It’s not about a checklist that we must fulfill or we’ll mess up our kids. That is legalism, friends!

Parenting is about trusting God, following God, and letting God lead us in how we raise our kids. Faith-based parenting in this way means:

Prioritizing your own personal relationship with Jesus, so you can bring good fruit into your family life (see John 14)
Confessing your sin, and trusting that God is faithful and just to forgive you (see 1 John)
Teaching and instructing your children about the faith as you teach them about the Bible, prayer, church, and about relationship with Jesus (see Ephesians 6)
Expecting hard times and leaning on Jesus to provide the protection and help that you need (see Ephesians 6)
Trusting Jesus with your parenting efforts, which will never be perfect, because He is working all things out for good (see Romans 8)
Showing your children the same patience, love, compassion, kindness, grace, and every other spiritual fruit that you’ve received from Jesus (see Galatians 5)

Good parenting is hard work. And we can only find the answers and the help we need in Jesus.

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How our mom overwhelm is helped by faith-based parenting

Jesus is clear in the Bible that He is our source of rest. He is our peace and our joy.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Parenting can definitely be overwhelming. With our family schedules, jobs, household chores, extracurriculars, and commitments, we’re stretched then. Each family member has unique emotions, needs, preferences, struggles, and personalities to balance.

We want to enjoy all of that, but sometimes we hit seasons where it’s just too much. We are weary. We are burdened.

And Jesus promises us rest.

He doesn’t promise us Easy Street. Jesus does have a “yoke” for us. It’s just that, his yoke is good, and He will be with us to help every step of the way.

(Wondering what a “yoke” even is?? So was I. The yoke is a tool used in farming, a wooden object placed around the oxen’s shoulders to lead them in doing their work correctly. The older, wiser, stronger ox has the bulk of the work and is carrying the primary weight of the yoke. They were typically paired with a younger, newer, weaker ox who could learn from them with the lighter weight of the yoke.)

We follow Jesus in the same way! He does have a “yoke” for us – there is work for us to do, and He is not promising that it will be easy and carefree. It couldn’t be all that meaningful if it was easy like that.

But Jesus is promising us that He will teach us. He will lead us. He is gentle, humble, and kind. While the world will overwhelm us, and we may sometimes accidentally overwhelm ourselves with commitments and unhealthy patterns, Jesus will never overwhelm us. He will help.

So when we parent – and especially when we feel overwhelmed in our parenting! – there is no better help than Jesus. His path offers us the best way forward.

But what is his path forward? We must turn to the Bibe to find the help we need in the practical, everyday matters of parenting.

Turning to the Bible to lead you in faith-based parenting

Every parent wishes there was a manual telling us what to do and when to do it. But guess what? There is!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The Scriptures give us everything we need for success in life. And this includes our parenting.

That doesn’t mean that the Bible will give enough detail to tell you which school to send your kids to. Nor does the Bible give you a script to follow when you need to discipline your child for misbehavior.

But Scripture is the ultimate foundation for our faith, and therefore the ultimate foundation for faith-based parenting. The Scriptures point us to Jesus and show us how to live.

As we see in 2 Timothy here, Scripture helps parents in several ways:

Teaches us
Rebukes us
Corrects us
Trains us in righteousness
Equips us for every good work

Let’s take a look at how this leads us in faith-based parenting.

Scripture teaches us.

We have a lot of questions in parenting, and the Bible provides many answers. We learn about God, who is not only our Creator but is our children’s Creator also! But we also learn about sin, which we will struggle with in parenting and which our children will struggle with as well.

As we learn from the Scriptures about who God is, who we humans are, and about the gospel, we are equipped and prepared for every challenge of life. And parenting can definitely be a challenge!

Scripture rebukes us.

As parents, we can far too easily let our sinful struggles lead our interactions with our kids. We let out our anger, our selfishness, our laziness, our apathy, our pride – and so much more – during hard moments with our kids.

If we don’t confess these sins, we will not be walking closely with the Lord or living out our faith. Scripture shows us the goodness of God and the brokenness of mankind. This help us turn back to God. We cannot parent well if we are walking in pride and sin.

READ NEXT: You Need To Read The Bible More

Scripture corrects us.

Yes, we want to learn. And yes, we need to be made aware of our sin so that we can confess. But we also need help figuring out what to do next. This is a big part of parenting – figuring out how to handle the situations our kids put us in, and trying to do that with the grace of Jesus.

So we turn to the Bible to see how to correctly live with our families. We find correction for our attitudes, thoughts, words, and decisions. Our parenting is corrected. As we change and grow with the Lord, that plays out with our children.

Scripture trains us for righteousness.

We can get lost in the day-to-day of parenting. There are so many chores to do, bills to pay, etc etc. Our schedules are packed and our days are busy. It can feel impossible to maintain our patience, compassion, other Christ-like characteristics on these crazy days.

Except… the Lord calls us to remain righteous. We need this most especially on the hard days! And the Bible trains us for this. Scripture shows us what holiness looks like and helps us engage with the Holy Spirit to grow that fruit in our lives.

Scripture equips us for every good work.

Parenting is good work. Raising kids, shepherding them, helping them, loving them, and launching them into the world as responsible, kind, godly people is such important work!

And we are not equipped to do this good work well without Scripture. We cannot avoid temptation and sin without the Lord’s help. We cannot have healthy communication or manage our anger and impatience without the Lord. We want to do this work well, and we need the Bible to equip us for it.

Faith-based parenting is the key to enjoying Christian family life

If you keep your faith separate from your home life, you’ll never really feel satisfied.

The Christian faith is not a Sunday-only event. Jesus wants every part of us, which means that our faith and his commands in the Bible will impact every area of our lives.

Including our parenting.

You probably feel overwhelmed in parenting sometimes. I certainly feel that way!

But there is rest available: turn to Jesus. Seek his help and follow where He leads. We can turn to the Bible to show us how to live well, how to parent well, and how to let our faith lead us in every part of parenting.

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