When I decided I was ready to be married, there was this thing I’d do when I prayed. After praying and making my supplication about finding the right partner,  I sometimes felt like God wasn’t really listening because ugh, I kept meeting frogs with no potential for ‘princehood’, kiss or otherwise. So, I would try and bargain with God telling Him that You need me to marry right even more than I need to make the right choice. “Why, you ask God?” Good question G! The answer is you need true believers to spread the truth of the gospel to the next generation, dontcha?!…Uhm, how they gon’ come, Boo?

Exactly.

They come from good parents who with your leading, raise Godly children with the power to bring Your truth to the next generation!

Boom!

I’m really just trying to help you here Lord, work with me!!

Looooool like God is stupid. He didn’t ignore me oh, infact He went over and above and brought me a decent Christian man from a good Christian home. Then, gave me a son and told me, “Oya oh, time has come. Make good on your promise for children to teach Me to the next generation, sis!”

Whew chile…

It is such a terrifying responsibility! Raising a child in this generation is frightening enough without the internet, predators, technology, terrorism, Trump, ‘new or no morality’, failing government systems and much more. Trying to raise a godly child, a good human being with the understanding of His purpose in bringing the kingdom of God to this earth is petrifying. I keep reminding myself that it’s God that raises people for His glory, I just need to be present, plugged to Him and lean into His wisdom and guidance. A child is a little person of his own with his independent will, challenges and individual focus. Our job as parents is really just stewardship. God has put this invaluable treasure into our hands and we have to make this gem shine for His glory until God comes to take him back (long, long, long after we are dead as parents by His Grace).  So, a child needs to be mindfully guided to reach the purpose God created Him for. That scares me.

In my prayers this morning, this came into my thoughts as it does every time I pray for my son. It occurred to me, for the first time, that the issue is not just finding a way to raise a child that is God’s tool.  The key, which God has been trying to teach me all this time, is for ME as a parent to be the tool in God’s hands. It’s for my husband and I to be in a posture to hear God consistently, directly plugged to Him so our child by watching and learning from us in an atmosphere where true worship is the norm, organically grows into the knowledge of God. And by worship I don’t mean just hands raised and slow singing, I mean a life that is poured out in the authentic and loving service of God. A life focused on empathy, kindness, godliness, truth, peace, love, true joy and so much more. I understood this morning as I sat with God in prayer, that the task is to create an enabling environment for our son to thrive. And what’s amazing about that is all it takes, is not a focus on the world and its dangers or even your child and his independence, but a focus on God and his guarantee of constancy and care.

“Even on our worst parenting day we will never see the back of God’s head”

-Paul David Tripp

Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles (found the devotional on the YouVersion app)