Processing Your Past with Your Family with Jordan Rogers

On the fourteenth episode of the Family Discipleship Podcast the hosts (Adam Griffin, Chelsea Griffin, and Cassie Bryant) talk about processing your past with your family with their friend Jordan Rogers.

You can follow Jordan here on instagram and you can hear his “I Am Second” story here.

Questions we addressed in this episode:

• Have y’all thought much about how or when or even “if” you will process your personal history with your kids? 
• What do you think are the important things to consider when a parent is thinking about processing their past with their family? 
• I don’t know if you ever hear this, but I know I have, when a parent feels like they can’t tell their teenager NOT to do something because they know that they did it when they were their age. What do you say to the parent who feels like it’d be hypocritical to warn their kids away from choices that they’ve made poorly themselves? How can we encourage parents who feel disqualified from “leading by example”?
• What does 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 have to do with this conversation?
• Why is knowing how, when, and whether to process part of your past with your kids an important aspect of family discipleship modeling? 
• Have you seen your history help you in how you raise your kids, maybe especially in how you spiritually disciple them? 
• What does it practically look like to “be honest and use discretion?” 
• How has your history and who you are now in Christ helped you shape the way you want to lead your home going forward?

Some of our favorite quotes from this episode:

• “I had really positive, persistent, gospel-saturated parents and the older I get the more I realize how fortunate I was for that.” - Jordan Rogers
• “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” - Bryan Stevenson
• “We will be as honest as age appropriate about our past.” - Jordan Rogers
• “Thank God that our bible is full of people who have broken pasts.” - Cassie Bryant
• “The title of your story is not going to be your mistakes. God can redeem all things” - Cassie Bryant
• "We can't lead our children any further than we are willing to go." - Jordan Rogers
• “We cannot do a bunch of good things to make our bad things go away, but God has the power to redeem and restore and make something new.” - Chelsea Griffin
• “I want my kids to know that God is doing miracles around us in the lives of people that we love.” - Chelsea Griffin
• “There’s a redeemed version of Adam Griffin that gets to speak to my kids about why I am not who I was anymore.” - Adam Griffin

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Jordan Rogers’ “I Am Second” Video
• “Christ calls us to care for those living in poverty—including parents working hard for their children’s future. Download your free copy of Created to Flourish: How Employment-Based Solutions Help Eradicate Poverty, to learn how. HOPE International fights physical and spiritual poverty in 16 countries through Christ-centered microenterprise development.”

To keep up with the Family Discipleship Podcast, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter. 

To read more about family discipleship, check out the book Family Discipleship: Leading Your Home Through Time, Moments, and Milestones by Adam Griffin and Matt Chandler. 

The Family Discipleship Podcast is a podcast of Training the Church.