More Thoughts on Parenting

From the moment you know you are pregnant you set out to protect that baby. Everything you eat, drink, how you medicate, the temperature of your shower, it's all to protect the baby. Then of course when the baby arrives it's all about what they will eat, how they will eat, how they will ride in the car, in your arms, in the stroller. It's all to protect them from pain and suffering. It doesn't end as they get older. You find yourself wanting to squash other precious children when they look at your kid funny, you scrutinize every TV show or movie they watch, you try and set them up for success so they don't have to struggle so hard in life in the future. It n---e---v---e----r ends! I can't imagine the things I will worry about as my school age kids approach their teen years-yikes!

Today I had this thought- I am trying so hard to protect them- why? Of course it's because I love them but a certain amount of pain and struggle is part of this world we live in. I can not protect them from everything and I don't even know if that is really my role. Perhaps my role is more to teach them how to deal with pain. How to face difficult situations and not fall apart. What would it look like to parent in this way?

What would it look like to be a child in this way? So often we expect Father God to be one of those parents who sets out to protect us from all pain and discomfort. To keep us from struggling too much. Maybe that's not His role after all. Maybe His role is more to prepare us for the difficult times we will inevitably face. Maybe we need to stop looking at Him and asking why or how could you and start asking OK, now what? How do I maneuver through this one?

Pain and struggle sucks but if I do my job right it won't destroy my kids it will help grow them to be better people. I bet Father God already knows this, well actually I know He does. Romans 5:4 says: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.