How did you prepare to parent? If you don’t yet have kids, how are you preparing even now?

If you’ve got kids I want you to think back to when you were getting ready to have them. How did you prepare? Did you read books about newborns and raising kids? Did you do a load of research and ask for tons of recommendations on must-have baby gear? Did you take a birthing class or a newborn class. Did you discuss parenting styles, hopes and dreams or prayers for their life with your spouse?

Listen, this is all preparation for being a parent. I know I did all of these things as I was getting ready to have my boys. But there’s something else we should be doing to prepare for parenting and we’re not really talking about it. Do you know what it is? It’s this:

How to deal with unresolved hurt, trauma and pain from your childhood so you can enter the parenting phase of your life — free and aligned with Jesus — ready to raise and launch this next generation in a healthy and powerful way.

That’s what we’re talking about on this week’s episode of the Positioned to Prosper podcast. So if you’d like to intentionally dig a little deeper into what it looks like to prepare for parenting — from a mental, an emotional and a spiritual perspective — then I want you to grab your Bible, your journal and a pen, and . . . Let’s Go!

What you will learn in this episode:

• How the unresolved hurt, trauma and pain from your own childhood can negatively impact your ability to strongly parent your own kids;
• The three spiritual steps you can take to process unresolved hurt, trauma and pain from your past so you can prepare in a strong way to parent your kids; and
• How to connect to our REVIVE Online Campus Community during the month of August to continue the conversation around godly parenting and to access two discipleship sessions designed to help you go deeper on this practice of preparing to parent well.

Scripture References mentioned in this episode:

Proverbs 22:6 —
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Isaiah 61:1-3 —
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Hebrews 4:12 —
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Links to Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Join us in August inside the REVIVE Online Campus Community (“the ROCC”) where we’ll be launching a month-long series on godly parenting. You’ll have access to Friday night and Sunday morning service messages all month long and two discipleship sessions designed to help us go deeper into intentional preparation for parenting, including one discipleship session where the material from this episode will be discussed. Hop into our community group and we’ll see you there as we continue the discussion.

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Erica co-leads a local church alongside her husband, Doug, in Tampa, Florida called REVIVE Church of Tampa. You can visit the church’s website for more information about who we are, what we believe and how we show up as the Church in the heart of West Tampa and beyond.

REVIVE Church of Tampa

REVIVE Church of Tampa streams services live on Friday nights at 7pm ET and Sunday mornings at 11am ET. You can find those livestreams on our church Facebook page:

Live Services – Fridays at 7pm ET and Sundays at 11am ET

If you’re interested in joining the online campus of REVIVE Church of Tampa, you are welcome to join our community group on Facebook where we offer weekly discussion around the Friday and Sunday messages as well as discipleship Zoom groups and the opportunity to host others in your home as you stream services. You can find us here:

The ROCC: REVIVE Online Campus Community

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About this podcast:

Positioned to Prosper is a weekly podcast that covers the ins and outs of what it means to live a lifestyle of breakthrough and victory in your relationships, health, finances and beyond. Your host, Erica Pyle, is no stranger to jumping without the proverbial parachute while maintaining a firm grip on godly wisdom. A self-described slayer of pragmatism and a “walk by faith” kind of girl, Erica is an unabashed believer in the power of God to radically transform lives. Front-footed in faith as she offers straight-up truth, strategies, and wisdom for living victoriously, and equipped with her love for the word of God, her certification as a holistic health coach, and years of experience in personal finance and taxation, Erica is ready to help you get positioned to prosper.