A parents lesson

This week was a pretty big one for our family. Our oldest daughter turned eleven Wednesday. It seems so hard to believe that it was eleven years ago that God blessed us with a healthy baby girl. Those eleven years have flown by. I was looking over these past eleven years in my mind while driving to work. Over these years I’ve learned a lot about myself and about God.

(Picture of my girls holding hands in Wal-Mart)

You may ask, “How have you learned about God by becoming a dad?” I personally believe that we can learn more about God by everything in life. Having a child teaches you a lot however, about the love that God shows us as our Heavenly Father. I thought I’d share some of these things with you.

I have learned that the love of a parent is not affected by circumstances. Raising two children hasn’t been the easiest thing my wife and I have done. (I’m afraid that it could get harder considering the teenage years are coming.) My children have not gotten into a lot of trouble, but they for sure have done things that I wish they would not have done. They have done things that I have told them not to do. In spite of this I have not stopped loving them. I’m sure that they could do things that would break my heart, but I don’t think they could do anything to make me stop loving them.

This reminds me of the love of Christ. I would love to say that I have never done anything to disappoint God, but I would be lying. In fact I’ve done things that I know I should not have done. Does this change the fact that God loves me? Absolutely not! Paul assures us in Romans 8 that nothing is able to separate us from the love of God. God’s love is the love of a parent who cares at all times and in all circumstances.

I have learned that being a parent requires a lot of patience. (Read the paragraphs above.) Sometimes it takes more patience than I have. Thinking of this makes me glad that God is a patient God. Wow, I’m sure glad that God does not “fly off the handle”, as we like to say here in the south, but rather is long suffering toward us. God is even long suffering to those that are not his children. God displays his mercy and kindness to those who reject Him. Jesus died for the entire world, but knew that the entire world not accept Him.

I have learned that parents know more than the kids think they do. Remember when you were younger and how you thought you had all of the answers. So many times we wouldn’t understand why our parents would give us certain rules, or make us do certain things. What we learned as we grew up is that our parents did this because they knew better than we did what was best for us.

God does this for us all the time. We don’t understand why God won’t give us something we have been asking for. Maybe God knows that it will be harmful for us. We don’t understand when God brings certain circumstances in our life, but God knows that through the trial we will be strengthened and become a better Christians.

The last thing I will mention is that I have learned responsibility. I have always found the story of Enoch an interesting one. We all know that Enoch walked with God and that he did not see death because God simply took him. What most don’t realize is that the birth of Enoch’s first child was instrumental in this walk. The book of Genesis tells us that Enoch walked with God after he “begot Methuselah”. I can see Enoch looking down into the eyes of his new baby and realizing that he needed God in his life.

I believe if being a parent doesn’t teach us anything else, it should teach us our need for God. We that are parents or grandparents must walk in the footsteps of God, because we have little feet following us.

Next time you look at your children remember that God sees you as one of His children.