It’s t…

It’s that time of the evening again as it always is.  My oldest daughter has finished her generic knock-off of a pepperoni Lunchable sans pepperoni.  These she has relegated to her four year old sister who loves the stuff and yet will only eat the circle slices of ham and some of the cheese squares of her meal leaving the crackers to languish in their flimsy plastic tray .  But this is a step-up from the one and a half year old bundle of testosterone locked into his high chair by the removable tray that is sprinkled by the little bits and shredded morsels of what might be cheese and other parts of his decimated meal that did not deserve such and end now only destined for the trash can and garbage disposal.  Their teeth are brushed, medications given, hugs handed out and excuses for staying up denied.  Now is the part where my boy sitting in my arms turns off the light to the room and then leans into me giving me the good night hug that will last for the duration of the prayer on the way to his crib where he will fling himself onto his dolphin Pillow Pet and fight the inevitable grasp of sleep.

Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

     It is this time of the day that I can dream for my kids.  It is this time of the evening that I begin to realize once again the immense role played by the father in their upbringing not just in the tying shoes, killing spiders, and showing them the finer points of skipping rocks across the water of the drainage ditch skirting our neighborhood park.  As I pray for my son and then when he is asleep my daughters, asking God to watch over them, draw them to Him and teach them and show them the way to live their lives that they may please Him and follow His will and way, I can’t help but realize, once again that though these are all things that their Heavenly Father supports and is a part of, it is their earthly father and mother who must instill it in the children.  I can not pass it off to God and then walk away from it.  God will teach the willing.  He will discipline all of those who are willing to stay around to feeling the lick of His all consuming fire.  But it will be me who at the appropriate time talks to them about the things of God.  It will be their mom and me who live out the mature Christian life that we expect of them.  It will be my hunger for the things of God that will be the benchmark for theirs.  They will look back on how their mother treated them with kindness and how I their father taught them the grace of God by showing them the grace of their father when they blew it on purpose or otherwise.  They will see their Heavenly Father as severe if I am.  They will believe His love to be as unconditional as they find mine to be.  The confidence I show I have in them to not intervene but to let them make choices and be creative in their own right and express themselves will be a great part of the confidence they will have in God that He loves them the way they are and does not seek to alter their identity only to show them the unique way He created them within their personality and identity to serve Him and impact their world the way only they can.

     My professor who I looked up to the most in college said that we as parents should wet the appetites of our children for the Lord.  We should introduce them to Him as their source.  This will set them on the right course for the rest of their life.  We are to introduce them to Him, the Source aim them down the path and then send them on their way.  If we have done our part, though they stray and  sway from side to side on the road of faith they will not be able to depart from it for it is as much a part of them and become ingrained on their identity so that they can no longer disown Him as they can their own reflection.  When they find Him as their source nothing else will be enough.  What an incredible work.  What a challenging goal.  But, OH what a worthy one!