Grace-Based Parenting

Hi mama! Today I’m sharing a devotion called Graced-Based Parenting, which is part of my devotional book, Beautiful Truth – A 21-Day Devotional For Mothers.

So here goes today’s devotion.

Grace-Based Parenting

Focus verse

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.—Ephesians 2:8-9

Devotion

One day in 2014, when Abby was around six months old, I took her with me shopping. As it was an oven-hot day, I’d dressed Abby in only a dress and a nappy.

While I strolled around the shop with Abby in the buggy, a lady came up to look at her and remarked that she must be cold, as she wasn’t wearing shoes. Although her comment was ridiculous, it affected me as I felt she had criticized me for not dressing my child appropriately.

As a young mother, I considered people’s opinions of me as the truth, and I fell into the ‘works-based parenting’ mindset. I believed that if I got motherhood right, I was a great person, and if I got it wrong, I was a bad one. But one day, God showed me that my identity was not defined by my actions or people’s perceptions of me. My identity was in Jesus.

This is true of you too, mama. Today, if you feel criticised, remember that your identity is not defined by people’s perceptions of you, or your performance as a mother, but by Jesus, who lived the perfect life you and I could not live.

Read: Ephesians 2:1–10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Questions for reflection

1. Have you ever fallen into works-based parenting? Think of an example.

2. How can “salvation by grace alone, by faith alone” affect your motherhood?

3. What is true of you now (verses 5, 6 and 10)?

Prayer

Thank You, Father God, for Your wonderful grace. Thank You for Your gift of salvation.

Thank You for the fact that my identity as Your child does not shift according to my performance as a mother.

Thank You for calling me to rest in Your grace, rather than stress over man-made standards.

Thank You that my identity is not set by other people’s opinions or my own feelings, but by who I am in You. Amen.

Did you like Graced-Based Parenting? Read the whole devotional book Beautiful Truth: A 21-Day Devotional For Mothers on Kindle Unlimited

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