“Imagine a basic showdown scenario: suppose a toddler is standing at the coffee table right across from you and repeatedly wants to mess with the vase. Suppose further that the toddler has just gotten mobile and you have not childproofed the house yet, and they keep wanting to touch the vase. Too often, parents think that the lesson is entitled ‘How not to mess with vases,’ when the actual lesson is called “How not to get exasperated with other people.’
Manners That Matter
“The child has bad manners, sure enough, and his father told him not to have those bad manners. But why does he have bad manners at the table? Because his father does. Snapping at your children at the dinner table is much worse than playing with your potatoes with a knife.”
Honest Imitation and the Other Kind
“When we try to preserve our originality by being as unique and cool as possible, what is actually going on is that we are copying other people with sidelong glances and we are unable to admit to ourselves that that is what we are doing”
No Robotic Saints
“The more like Jesus you are, the more like yourself you are going to be. The less like Jesus you are, the more monotonous and predictable it’s going to be. Sin is monotonous. Godliness is not.”
No Other Way
“There are, of course, two types of imitation. True progress and godliness is something that develops through imitation, but because human beings are necessarily imitators, the same thing is true of ungodliness”
Two Layers of Imitation
“Godly parenting is a function of becoming more like Jesus in the presence of little ones who are also in the process of becoming more like Jesus.”
Said in a World of Bad Omelets
“You can have the best equipment in the world, but if you try to make an omelet with rotten eggs, you are still going to get a rotten omelet. It doesn’t matter how good the recipe is, or how fancy the kitchen is.”
Can’t Hide Your Kids from Adam
“Sin has to be addressed with gospel, not with isolation and defensive padding.”
But Not Going Away Mad
“You are to bring your children up to take their position among their people, and this means success is found in them going away”
Well. There’s an Interesting Perspective . . .
“It is quite possible—certain, in fact—that some parents sitting across the aisle might know more about what’s going on with you and your kid than you do. You might not know that your kid is a pill, and the person sitting across from you at church might not know your kid’s middle name—but he can still see that the kid is a pill. We need people looking at the back of our head”