Mark Hamby – my session notes

One of the “keynote speakers” at the Midwest Convention was a man by the name of Mark Hamby. I, myself, was not familiar with this man, but I was told by my sweet friends that I *must* hear him! So, I did! And I’m so thankful that I did. This man is a very annointed speaker, but more than that…he has experienced many mistakes in his parenting journey and has been humble enough to let the Lord show him those things so that now he can share them with others.

Mark Hamby is the creator (I believe?) of Lamplighter Publishing. As a sidenote, this company was created to publish old, out of print wonderful classic stories. He publishes books that have lessons, meaning and Biblical parenting and living themes to them. From what I have heard, they are all excellent…so I hope to save up and try one soon!

You can also download some of his talks from his website. The talk I’m going to mention is called the Strong Willed Parent. I can’t say enough about it, except to say that I think anyone reading my blog would truly benefit from hearing this session!

So, here are my notes and thoughts from the session:
Raise Them Up, Don’t Crush Them Down
(also called Strong Willed Parent on his website.)

~The most important thing to pass on to our kids is not history or math, it is to tell them what God is doing in our lives

~You can remove your kids from all the tainting of the world and still have an Cain and Able situation, even better than removing your children from the world is being Jesus to your kids, you have to model His love for them in your home.

~ We shouldn’t want to be like the Patriarchs (look at all their sinful behavior!) but instead, we should always strive to be more like Jesus

~Jesus did not RULE OVER people…he came to be a servant! (that’s scripture, folks!)

~Being a tough, authoritarian parent can (and likely will) turn your kids away from you

~People are drawn to humility, not strength and authority

~Remember, God told us that HIS STRENGTH is made perfect in our weakness!

~Jesus didn’t come to teach us the 10 Commandments, cram rules down our throat…He came to show us life, He came to give us Himself and His love.

~Type A people tend to wear themselves down trying to control people (ouch) which can lead to physical sickness. He talked about his own ailments (including fibromyalgia and depression that he had for 15 years until God set him free from his tough/domineering personality!)

~Isaiah 40:11 says that the Shepherd GENTLY leads His flock…

~Our kids don’t need to hear the beating of our voices (do this, do that, why didn’t you do this, why aren’t you like this) but the beating of our HEARTS for Jesus

~the sheep follow their shepherd when they see them getting dirty for them…sometimes loving people is hard and gets ugly…but remember, Jesus did this for us! He died for us!

~Laugh MORE and pick LESS

~Compassion – God doesn’t remember our sins from yesterday (this completely ties in with my word of the year, which I’m hoping to most more about on this topic and how the convention really convicted me of some things concerning compassion and my own kids)

~homeschooling families should not look perfect, they should look like hospitals — working on making things better, healing, fixing the boo-boos that we do all have, etc.

~dominating, controlling parents will turn the hearts of their children away from them (he shared about his own broken relationship with one of his sons and how they reconnected after God changed his heart as a father)

~you do’nt have to prove your authority with a bunch of words, but with humility

~grace should not be a bunch of rules, but open arms

~you can’t CONTROL people if your arms are OPEN…like Jesus and His open arms, your children will be drawn to you

~Grace is expensive to give, it hurts, it’s hard…but it is what it is going to take