Core Concepts of Covenant Parenting

What is Covenant Parenting? And why does it matter?

What is Covenant Parenting? It is the idea that we are called to parent our children in light of God’s Covenant with His people and that our children are part of that covenant and are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

These Core Concepts of Covenant Parenting are principles gleaned from the mentoring by Titus 2 women and my experience — but ultimately from the Bible. They reflect a reformed and covenantal understanding of theology. In them you will see ideas of grace in justification and sanctification, the Holy Spirit using means, the concept of Imago Dei, and ultimately trusting God’s love and sovereignty.

Core Concepts of Covenant Parenting

1. The Gospel is for me. The Gospel is for my children.

2. Our children are not just our children, but are also our brothers and sisters in Christ.

3. I desire to nurture my children as the people God has created them to be.

4. God put our children into our family — I am just the right mom to my children, and they are just the right children for me.

5. While God certainly works through our family, He is also working in their hearts directly apart from me.

6. How we parent matters. God uses both how I nurture my children — and sin against them — in their lives.

7. God is not just using us as parents in our children’s lives, but He is also using my children in my life for my growth and sanctification.

8. We are not called to be perfect parents, but to be faithful parents.

9. Children are the youngest disciples in our church.

10. Discipleship is the core of discipline.

11. God loves our children more than I do, and so we can let go.

Conclusion

These Core Concepts of Covenant Parenting have become guideposts for me through the years. I’ve made plenty of mistakes. I’ve sinned against my children. I’m not a perfect mother. Yet these principles have helped return my focus to the Lord, to trust Him, and faithfully nurture my children.

So much more can be written about each of these core concepts, and I intend to in the coming weeks. I want to encourage you as a mother to consider them in light of Scripture and how they might be helpful in your knee-deep-in-laundry parenting.

Using these parenting principles will not make you a perfect mother or guarantee that you’ll have perfect kids. But we know that ultimately parenting isn’t about that, is it? We are nurturing our children, discipling our children, to the glory of God.

Soli Deo Gloria.