A Guided Journey: Parenting With Jesus in the Raft
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Parenting I’ve discovered is like rafting down a beautiful, rushing mountain river that is never quite the same, always changing. There are places of extreme turbulence, some places that are relievingly tranquil, some places where we have to paddle with all our might to keep on course and even some sections where we feel as if we have fallen out of the raft all together. We can go down the river on our own looking at the manual as we go to try to figure out how to navigate the course of the river or we can ask other people what their ride down the river was like. While these may be helpful , I simply couldn’t imagine going down a river without a guide. Neither can I imagine parenting without Jesus.
This book is a recounting of my 28 year rafting ride as a parent in communion with my God and Savior, my Guide. The chapters of this book are in essence conversations with Jesus that led to recognitions and revelations which have fundamentally altered my course as a parent. Some of these conversations came as a cry for help in the midst of a raging rapid when everything I tried to do to get the raft on course was failing. Some came as I realized that the only way I knew to paddle was no longer working. Some were conversations when I was at a place on the journey to pause and reflect before entering the next stretch of white water.
I am sharing with you my account of these engagements with Jesus and the practical impact they had on my parenting, not so that you could applaud me, nor to inspire you to parent exactly as I did, but to serve as an example of what parenting with Jesus in the raft can look like. My hope then is that you would invite him into your raft and enter into earnest conversation with Him about your children, whom He knows by name and you whom He loves and this journey that you are on. Through this account of my journey, hear in it the beckoning voice of Jesus offering to step in the raft with you and lead you as he shouts exultantly over you, “I love my people!”
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About the Book
Parenting is like rafting down a beautiful, rushing mountain river that is never the same, always changing. Just as I could not imagine white-water rafting without a guide, neither can I imagine parenting without Jesus. Only He knows how to take each parent down each unique river. Only He knows His passengers intimately, and only He is there at all times to offer guidance on everything from discipline and sibling conflict, to facing weaknesses and fears.
This account of both the inspirational and practical parenting help I received as I cried out to Jesus is written to encourage others to invite Him into their rafts and be their guide for every aspect of their journey down the exhilarating river of parenting.
About the Author
An overwhelmed mother of one, Martha Fletcher is now a joyful mother of six. She lives in Chelmsford, Massachusetts with her husband, Michael, amid children, gardens, dogs and chickens. A frequent speaker over the past twenty years for parenting groups, this is her first book.