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The "Living with Heart" Podcast is brought to you by Chip Dodd Resources (www.chipdodd.com) and The Voice of the Heart Center (vothcenter.com). You can connect with Dr. Chip Dodd at chip@chipdodd.com. Contact Bryan Barley for coaching at bryan@vothcenter.com. 

2 Helpful resources along the parenting journey:

Link to 8 Feelings for Children Chart

How Are You Feeling Today

The focus of this season on “Living with Heart: From Birth to Death” is parenting. Some of the content in these episodes loosely connects to the book, Parenting with Heart by Stephen James and Chip Dodd. 

Taking responsibility as a parent is referred to in several ways:

• “Dealing with unfinished business” 


• “Doing your own work” 


• “Owning your own problems”


• “Self-care to care about others”

Taking responsibility as a parent means that a parent accepts that they are a work in progress, as is every child. We are all WIPs (works in progress). 

A WIP recognizes that humility is an essential factor to be a healthy, responsible parent.

A WIP has healthy shame, identified by five basic recognitions:

1. I make mistakes; so do others.


2. I need other grown-ups and others need me.


3. I don’t have all the answers, but I will share what I do know.


4. I ask questions when I don’t know how to do something; I support others in doing the same.


5. I am not God; I am in need of God.

The responsible parent is a WIP who:

• has humility


• has a willingness to grow and change 


• and recognizes that they are just as human as their children

The responsible parent also faces and is humbled by these realities:

1. The best we ever become is clumsy.


2. We have to live life on life’s terms.


3. Everything in life is practice.


4. It takes a lifetime to learn how to live.

These four realities that are faced by the parent, give permission to the parent, and child alike, to live with imperfection and still pursue excellence.

Basically, there is no finish line. 

By having an attitude and disposition that focuses on growth, not perfection, parents create a healthy environment of children.

Ultimately, the responsible parent is a person who lives the Golden Rule.

Jesus said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12 , NIV).

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