Spiritual Parenting
Thursday afternoons are one of my favorite times of the week. For almost a year, Thursday afternoons have been a time to ask questions, seek truth and wisdom, read scripture, be reminded of the gospel, and learn from a father in the faith. My dear friend Jenna and I began meeting with our spiritual father last summer. We jokingly call this meeting our “Biblical Worldview Class” or “BIB 101” for short. I can’t begin to explain the abundance of wisdom and knowledge this time has added to my life. Why am I telling you this? Well, good question. Allow me to explain.
Recently in BIB 101, we have been reading Confessions of St. Augustine. This book, if nothing else, has taught me about the importance of spiritual parenting, having rightly ordered love, and why confession matters.
In this book, Augustine attributes his salvation to his mother and spiritual father. Within the past few years, I have experienced the redemptive healing of having spiritual parents. My spiritual mother covers me in prayer, shows me how to live a life that is wholly surrendered to Jesus, and teaches me to never fall into passivity in my relationship with God. She encourages me in my calling. Time and time again, she points me to Jesus. My spiritual father freely gives away the wisdom God has given him. He sacrifices time to teach me the Word. He has taught me how to seek Truth when I am faced with unending questions. He reminds me of the love of the Father. Time and time again, he points me to Jesus. Both of them have modeled rightly ordered love and passed on their testimonies not only to me but to many others over the years.
My intention for sharing these things with you is twofold. First, I want to testify to the beauty and power of having spiritual parents in my life. Second, I want to encourage you to become a spiritual parent if God calls you to it!
I am confident that there are people in your sphere that need you to model rightly ordered love. Someone in your circle needs to hear the testimony of why you confess Jesus as Lord. There is a great harvest of people who want to sit at your feet and listen to how God has saved, healed, and delivered you. There is a generation that needs spiritual mamas and papas to point them to Jesus.
Hear this piece of encouragement: you have everything you need to be a spiritual parent. It is far less complicated than it seems. If you can pray, read scripture, sit around a table, and are willing to show someone how you live as a Christian, you can do it! You do not need to have the answer to every question, only the willingness to walk alongside them in searching for the answer. This is not a call to be perfect, but rather, a call to show someone how to live as an imperfect person who longs for Jesus to be the center of everything.
The prayers and parenting of Augustine’s mother are what I long for the church to recover. May it be our passion to live out the great commission, give away the gospel until our dying breath, and help the orphans find their way home. I’ll leave you with a quote from Confessions of St. Augustine. As Augustine’s mother was dying, she told him,
“There was one thing for the sake of which I wanted to remain somewhat longer in this life, and that was to see you a universal Christian before I died. My God has fulfilled this wish- filled it to overflowing, as I actually see that you’re his slave, scorning earthly happiness. So what am I doing here?”'