“Rising good kids is utterly impossible unless they are drawn by the holy spirit to put their faith in the goodness of another. You cannot raise good kids, because you’re not a good parent. There is only one good Parent, and he had one good Son. Together, this Father and Son accomplished everything that needed to be done to rescue us and our children from certain destruction. When we put our faith in him, he bestows the benediction upon us: “these are my believed children, with whom I am well pleased” (see Matt 3:17). [This, by the way, is also the only true cure for the never measuring up of perfectionism – lowering expectations is only a piece of it – this is a freebie from Eric 🙂 ].

Give this grace to your children: tell them who they really are [not full of goodness after the fall], tell them what they need to do [i.e. Gods entire law], and then tell them to taste and see that the Lord is good [i.e. Christ, full of goodness, obeyed the law perfectly out of joy and gladness on my behalf and then died for me]. Give this grace to yourself, too.”

Elyse Fitzpatrick, “Give Them Grace”, Crossway books, 2011, p50