Parenting… Somebody should have warned me it would be so difficult !
And somebody should have explained that it’s never a done deal. Once a child is born to you, it’s a forever thing. A relationship that is multi-faceted and ever changing.
It is easy when they are little children. Though that time is so difficult, and so very very important. That time to a great degree determines the course of the rest of the relationship, thru the teens and into the adult years.
My parents are both still living as I write this. I wonder at their thoughts about the four of their children. I wonder at the concerns, the frustrations, the joy, the satisfactions…
I pray I have not caused them much frustration and heartache. I pray they spent few sleepless nights in concern for me.
Children have such an unrealistic idea about parents. I did. Only when I began to face some of the things I was so critical about did I appreciate my parents’ parenting.
Children have all the answers. Ever notice that? Young adults…they are just as wise as hoot owls! They often think so anyway. I did.
Now, the older I get, the more I realize how little I know, and how helpless I am.
I have a lot of regret about my parenting. The enemy would like to continue to use that, but he’s a defeated liar, and it’s a waste of time to continue to grieve over what is done.
2 Samuel 12 tells a good story about such as that. As long as there is life, there is hope in prayer against even death itself. If we bear guilt, it is right for us to grieve and repent.
And it is right that we ACCEPT forgiveness, get up, worship and love God for Who He is, and follow Him past the ‘now’.
The ‘now’ may be sad, even heart wrenching…but there comes a time to lay aside the sorrow and hurt…and we must never allow our enemy to influence us to allow the thing to stop us from worshipping God and following after Him.
Our failures are against God. Even those failures of parenting. And when we try to ‘fix’ them ourselves, we butt our heads against a wall if we do not go to Him first, for ‘…against You, You only, have I sinned…’ (Ps. 51:4)
“I will restore to you the years that the locust have eaten….” (Joel 2:25)
He is God. He can heal and restore ANYthing. Hallelujah !!
