Family Testimonies

Mission Bible Church, Costa Mesa CA

With one child having developmental and social disorders, our life wasn’t just hectic, it was overwhelming. However, we believe that ‘training hearts’, through Christ, has done what psychology and medication couldn’t have done, and allowed our little guy to love God and love others.   Our oldest son went from being one of the most myopic, judgmental, and demanding children I’d ever seen.  We now enjoy having a buddy, gym partner, care-taker, and sensitive leader, and this by the age of 5.  The class allowed us to move past training behavior and focus on training hearts. This has created a home culture that exists to glorify God and develop committed followers of Jesus Christ (instead of robots).  There has been such an improvement in school! Our son started a school program at age 3 and we were called the first day because of his tantrums and misbehavior. 

A year later and after we took Training Hearts for Jesus biblical parenting class, we enrolled him in Pre-K, and he came home with a super-star award after the first day!  God is good!  There has also been improvement in the area of his attitude and his abilities as seen through extra curricular activities.  Our son tended to be individualistic and thus, did not perform well in team-settings. He now plays with friends in the neighborhood and our home has become the place for team games, such as baseball, football, soccer, and dinner!  My wife was a strong influence in my taking this class, for which I am eternally grateful! I had doubts the first week, but by week two I was sold.  We saw progress immediately following each principle that was instituted.  We are so happy we took this parenting class and have already recommended it to many.  There were many days before THfJ where we felt overwhelmed by the job of parenting.  Our home felt chaotic after having children & there was little peace.  After starting the class, the atmosphere of our home immediately changed; we had direction & a plan for our home & our lives.  The class was also paramount in opening up lines of communication between my wife and me.  That was one of the highlights. Common cause, common experience, common enemy, all equate to bonding a couple around the nucleus of God’s word!   People say that “content is king” when it comes to training, but I’d add that “content is king IF it’s shared by authentic voices.” That’s what works about THFJ. Mario, Sharon, and the other leaders are “eating what they’re selling” and are committed to it! They are not only great communicators, but committed disciples of Christ, and this comes across in their weekly passion for the topic of biblical parenting with those they lead through the process!

When we have left the children with the grandparents in the past, we were fearful of how they would behave and what we would hear when we returned.  Now, we have confidence that when we leave them, they will treat authority, property & their peers with respect.  The grandparents now tell us that they are blessed when they stay with them and appreciate their obedience.

We love the way the class has changed our relationship with our children!  With order brought into the home, each evening we are able to institute “prayer journals” where, on top of Bible reading, we keep notes on daily prayers and hopes. God is now answering their faithful prayers – seeing people in our church blessed, miracles happen in our societal context, and their adopted siblings in Africa cared for – We now have a life-long family documentation, together, of God’s stirring in our home!  Our whole family is walking closer to the Lord as a result of Training Hearts for Jesus!  This isn’t just a class on what God will do through your child but a discipleship class on what God wants to do in you, as the parent!  We believe the biblical principles taught through this class are resulting in blessings for our children and their future.  Generational curses were broken and a new legacy was founded.  We believe that generations will be bettered due to the changes we have made in our family as a result of this class. Specifically, I pray we all learn to love and lead our children for who THEY are, and who God made them to be, and not who WE want them to be.