It’s 4:30 in the morning and you hear a noise. You are startled, but you don’t reach for a gun or a bat because you quickly realize that the noise is a voice. Not just any voice. It is one of your kids. “I threw up.”
No alarm clock gets you out of bed as fast as those words.
Did I mention, it is 4:30 in the morning? Parenting is not easy, and in the big scheme of things, 4:30 AM vomiting sessions are the small potatoes of parenting. There are greater stressors to come. Kids mess up, kids make mistakes, sometimes kids just outright rebel against their parents. Parenting is hard, but I’m writing to you today to urge you to not give up.
Parents, don’t quit. No one has as great of an impact on your children as you do. In 2020, parenting has become more hands-on than it has been in a long time. You are parent, teacher, coach, and cook. You are working to navigate a global pandemic, work from home, and e-learning all while trying to keep your kids out of the emergency room (which isn’t as easy as it sounds because they have discovered hammers, nails, and power tools and re-discovered bicycles and fishing rods) and yourself out of the asylum.
You Can Do This
Parenting is not easy. Our oldest son turns 13 this month. We have not yet navigated high school, driving, or college admissions.However, no phase of parenting has been easy. There have been late night fevers, teething, tantrums, stitches, broken bones, ear infections, more stitches, black eyes, ER visits, flu, surgeries, canceled trips, an adoption, and algebra. But,
Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.
Psalm 127:3-5
Even in the hard days, children are a blessing and you have a responsibility (and privilege) to bring them up in the fear and admonition fo the Lord. And, if God has given you a responsibility, he’s given you the ability to do it. He instructs us,
Discipline your children, and they will give you peace; they will bring you the delights you desire.
Proverbs 29:17
Parenting isn’t easy, but don’t give up. We don’t labor for the rewards of today, we labor for the rewards of the future. We teach them God’s word for the sake of their souls. We make them eat broccoli when they are two so that we can enjoy dinners in restaurants when they are 8 (assuming COVID-19 allows us eat in restaurants again…..). We force them to go to church as children so that we can enjoy the fruits of their faithful commitment to the Lord as adults. We work for what is to come and we labor as unto the Lord.
We love our children. But, not every aspect of parenting is easy or enjoyable. Parents. Don’t quit, and don’t run to the wisdom of the coronavirus age–tequila is not the answer. But, Jesus is, and training your children in righteousness creates adults who love the Lord and are profitable to society.
