Quotes from Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

God loves us so much that he crushed his Son so that we might be his and that this love isn't based on our worthiness or performance. His love doesn't fluctuate from day-to-day. It was settled the moment he set it upon you before the foundation of the world.

I thought parenting was going to reveal my strengths, never realizing that God had ordained it to reveal my weaknesses.

When we fail to respond in Christlikeness to the disappointments of life, it's usually because we've forgotten all he has accomplished for us.

Idols aren't just stone statues. No, idols are the thoughts, desires, longings, and expectations that we worship in the place of the true God. Idols cause us to ignore the true God in search of what we think we need. Covenantal Gods

But the Bible isn't mainly about you and what you should be doing. It's about God and what He has done.

Faith, then, is simply a believing that there is a God who loves us, in spite of the poison of sin coursing through our soul.

Our problem is not that we desire happiness. No, our problem is that we continue to foolishly believe that we can attain it apart from him. We think that if we just try hard enough, the next time we'll get it right (whatever it is) and we'll be happy. Instead of pushing through to the true source of all joy and happiness, we sinfully believe the false promises of lesser gods.

When I neglect the gospel, I'll want nice vacations and nice compliments and nice things to make my life nicer. I'll long to be able to compare myself favorably with others and to know that I am successful. I'll look down on those who don't meet my standards, and I'll idolize those who excel. I'll forget that he is preeminent.

We're women and men who are so sinful and flawed that we deserve hell, but we've been so loved and welcomed that every spiritual blessing, adoption, tender fellowship with our Father and each other, forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life is ours. Christ's accomplishments and perfections are ours now. Everything about us is different.

One can be addicted to either lawlessness or lawfulness. Theologically there is no difference since both break relationship with God, the giver. ~ GERHARD O. FORDE

We are partners with our children because we are just like them, dearly loved sinners.

Give grace to your children today by speaking of sin and mercy. Tell Susan that she can relax into God's loving embrace and stop thinking that she has to perform in order to get her welcoming Father to love her. Tell David that he can have hope that even though he really struggles, he's the very sort of person Jesus loved being around. Dazzle them with his love.

I did my best parenting by prayer. I began to speak less to the kids and more to God. It was actually quite relaxing.

You're not just one in millions, a face lost in the crowd. In the heart of God you're unique, a distinct person with a particular name, chosen from before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).

for it is only an appreciation of his love that can motivate genuine obedience.

True Christianity is not a program of self-improvement; it's an acknowledgment that something more than self-improvement is needed.

It would be against God's character to give us a promise that our children will be saved if we raise them in a certain way. That would mean that he was telling us to trust in something other than Christ and his grace and mercy.

Do you love me with an all-consuming devotion that rules out all other loves?

in my heart is rooted in lovelessness and thanklessness.... By contrast, every truly holy act, including even the inner desire to be holy, springs out of the love and worship that He has placed in my heart.

I admit that at times my prayer for my children is nothing more than vocalized unbelief aimed at God.

At the deepest level of what we do as parents, we should hear the heartbeat of a loving, grace-giving Father who freely adopts rebels and transforms them into loving sons and daughters.

Idolatry, like all sin, is devastating to the soul. It cuts us off from the comforts of grace, the peace of conscience, and the joy that is to be our strength.

Idolatry is always subject to the law of diminishing returns.

the children who actually end up performing better are those who understand that their relationship with God doesn't depend on their performance for Jesus but on Jesus's performance for them. With the right mixture of fear and guilt, I can get my three children to obey in the short term. But my desire is not that they obey for five minutes or even for five days. My desire is that they obey for fifty years!