When I do My Best Parenting

Paul Miller, in his book, A Praying Life, writes this about parenting and prayer:

It took me seventeen years to realize I couldn’t parent on my own. I was not a great spiritual insight, just a realistic observation. If I didn’t pray deliberately and reflectively for members of my family by name very morning, they’d kill one another. I was incapable of getting inside their hearts. I was desperate. but even more, I couldn’t change my self-confident heart. My prayer journal reflects both my inability to change my kids and my inability to change my self-confidence. That’s why I need grace even to pray.

God answered my prayer. As I began to pray regularly for the children, he began to work in their hearts… It didn’t take me long to realize I did my best parenting by prayer. I began to speak less to the kids and more to…