Being a parent is hard. It comes with the toughest job description. God has lent us these children to shape and mold into respectable human beings in his image. We are responsible for leading, directing, caring, teaching and loving these little people from infancy to adulthood without breaking them, too much. Hopefully, one day we can look back and say we did our absolute best as parents and hope our children grow up thankful for the way they were raised. But like any parents, along the way we become nervous, anxious even. We begin to ask ourselves questions. Am I doing all the right things? Am I guiding them on the right path without hindering thier own self? Am I training them to be an independent and confident human being who can thrive in society? I hope so. I think about all the things I want my children to know and be capable of. Therefore, I came up with this list of the things I hope to teach and hope I am teaching my children through our experiences in life.
1. You are not a minority. I thought about this after our Bible Study lesson the other night. To me, the word minority automatically implies less than, few, and living in this world can definately make you feel just that. I want them to know they are not less than or few but of a majority. The Bible says "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." As long as they have God in them, they are the majority.
2. The right things about God. I know how this may sound. However, we have a tendency to tell kids all kinds of things about God's grace and mercy but show them another side by our response to situations in life. I hope our response to adversity, love, freindships and everything else shows a mighty image of God. I hope they look at the situations we've been through and overcome and think, "Wow, God is so awesome."
3. Love is an action word. We have a tendency to tell people we love them without a care in the world. We can tell someone we love them and not look at or do anything for them again. It doesn't matter how many times we say or what language we say it in. What matters is how we show it and show it often.
4. Being different isn't so different. Kids, adults, everyone at times gets caught up in the world of conforming, even when we don't even like what we are conforming to. We can easily fall into the trap of being just like everyone else because we are afraid of being different. Different is usually more interesting, more enlightening, more powerful, and more meaningful. Go ahead. Be different.
5. One failed attempt does not mean failure. Or two or three or twenty. We live in this fast-paced world where we forget about patience. We expect everything to happen just like we want it just when want it. When it doesn't, we just give up and say it can't be done. I want them to know you have to work at things, you may have to do something over and over and over again but that doesn't mean it can't be done. It just means you will value it more when it's finally accomplished. And that will be all that matters.
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