Our Purpose: Jesus as the Waymaker

Why we are writing

Trying to get through parenthood and marriage each day while loving Jesus? So are we.

Some days it can feel like simply making it to the end of the day is the win. But even in the struggle, we’ve found something surprising: marriage and parenting are not just burdens to carry — they can actually become places where God shapes us and honestly can make us holier.

Not in a “holier than thou” way, but in a way where life holds up a mirror. It reflects our weaknesses, our reactions, our impatience, our need for grace. And it quietly asks the question: what is my cross today, and how do I carry it like Christ? 

Who we are

Jesus was not a parent of three. He wasn’t navigating smartphones, sleepless nights, school runs, he didn’t need to top petrol up in his car or the complexity of modern marriage. And yet He was perfect in every way.

He is God in human flesh, who walked the earth sinlessly, lived in perfect obedience, and willingly went to die on the cross in love for us — before rising again in glory. 

We can learn so much from what He did, said, and believed.

We are simply trying to align ourselves — as couples, as parents, as a family — with Him. Not just on Sundays, but in the ordinary, messy, everyday moments of life.

We get it wrong often. We mess up daily. But we believe it is worth it, and that our Father in heaven is patient with us as we learn.

What we are exploring

The purpose of A Parent’s Pilgrimage is to share our own journey — the highs, the lows, the successes, and the frequent failures.

We, like you, want to grow in Christ and see the fruit of the Spirit formed in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Parenting is a beautiful stewardship, but it is also hard. We want to learn how to do it better, together, and to point our children towards Jesus in the process.

We are pilgrims moving through life, trying to follow the way of Jesus while raising two young children (a 3-year-old and a 14-month-old), with another little one on the way.

This space will explore:

• Marriage and parenting

• Family life (both biological and the wider family of church and community)

• Spiritual habits and practices

• The rich and sometimes overwhelming history of the Church over 2000 years

We are also exploring questions of tradition and church history — from Protestant roots to Catholic and Eastern Orthodox history — not from a place of certainty, but from a desire to understand deeply and honestly. As we are not always sure where we sit theologically but want to learn and teach as best as we can to build relationships with our family in different denominations and traditions. 

We want to be able to answer our children’s questions with integrity, and to understand why we believe what we believe.

We will rarely claim certainty. Instead, this is a place of honest exploration — of convictions being formed over time through Scripture, tradition, learning, and conversation.

What we hope this becomes

We are lay people with no theological qualifications. We are simply trying to learn faithfully, and to share what we are discovering along the way — always aware that others have walked this road with far greater wisdom and knowledge than we have.

We hope this becomes a place of exploration, dialogue, and encouragement — where we can all grow in holiness together in our pursuit of Christ.

We see ourselves as pilgrims stumbling through the wilderness of confusion, trying to find the right path while also discovering hidden treasures along the way.

Our desire is simple: to sit at the foot of the cross and fall more deeply in love with Jesus.

And in doing so, to begin forming a path that our children can walk from an even stronger starting point than ours — building on the faithfulness of previous generations, not rejecting them, but learning from them and going further.

An invitation

If you’d like to join us on this pilgrimage, you are warmly welcome.

Whatever your tradition, background, or questions, we would love to walk alongside you.

Let’s seek unity, learn from our mistakes, and keep uncovering the truth found in knowing Jesus — in our marriages, our parenting, and our everyday lives.

A Parent’s Pilgrimage — come walk with us, one step at a time.

God bless.

Isaac & Bella