Perfection – perfect relationships, the perfect family, and yes, perfect children. We seem to want it all and expect that these are actually attainable. But what if these things aren’t necessarily what God expects from us?
For many families, this is a revelation.
Blueprints for the Family is a series of parenting classes created with one simple goal in mind: to help parents become better parents. That’s it. According to Carol McClure, Parent Partnership Coordinator with Marriage and Family Life, “The majority of the people coming in, want to grow. They just want to learn new skills to better parent their children.”
Though most parents take the classes because they honestly want to be better parents, their circumstances are often quite different. According to Carol, the program works with, “traditional families, step families, single parents, and even grandparents that are raising their grandchildren.”
When single parent Stephanie Keith signed up for the class, she 
wasn’t sure there would be much offered for someone with her family structure. “Initially I thought it was more geared toward couples but it focused actually on single parents as well and teaching them how to walk alongside with God in raising their children.” Stephanie stressed how reassuring it was as a single parent to know, “I do not have to take this walk of raising kids by myself. That if I turn to Christ and continue to walk with him, that we could walk together and He will guide me in to raising my children up to be adults.”
For Steve and Anne Cummings, 
parenting started out well enough – then the toddler years hit. “As Ethan got older, he started to toddle around and got into everything and discipline became part of our lives. We realized we don’t know how to do this very well,” Says Anne, in exasperated laughter. In time however, they learned parenting was often less about their child and more about their relationship. “It’s more about how Anne and I operate as a couple. Taking the time to invest in each other is the most valuable thing we can do for our family,” said Steve.
One of the trends in parenting that Blueprints for the Family has addressed is grandparents raising grandchildren. Carol points out the unique challenge facing many grandparents. “They simply don’t have the energy they did in earlier years.” When working with grandparents, she is quick, “To encourage those grandparents, to let them know that those children are blessed to have them as part of their lives.”
Carol bluntly stated that though many parents come in with their own ideas of what they need to learn, “God begins to teach people that He is more interested in what He is doing in them, through parenting, than them raising the perfect child.” For Anne, this proved quite true. “I learned I didn’t have to be perfect, my kids didn’t have to be perfect, that God gives us grace to be parents.”
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