You pray for a safe delivery...that they'll eventually sleep through the night...and for them as they start to school. You pray for them to have friends and to BE a friend, and that they'll choose to follow Jesus at an early age.
You pray for them as they study and date and learn to drive...for their college courses...for a job...for them to choose the right mate.
You pray for them as they start their families, as they begin to figure out how to parent and teach their own children.
Parenting is a roller-coaster ride of highs and lows; times where you raise your hands high with abandon, and times when you just hold on for dear life...in the twists and turns...through dark times that seem to never end, until you burst out the other side.
There were literally a million things, big things and small things, from birth to adulthood, that we quickly realized we could not handle on our own.
Young parents, hear this: YOU ARE NEVER DONE.
You never get to rock back with satisfaction, and say, "I'm done." You never close the folder, lock the door, cross "raising my kids" off your list.
As our children age, our role as their parent changes, for sure...but there is always a need for advice or counsel or encouragement. Sometimes there's a need to just listen.
Actually, I would say there's always a need to listen.
Being a parent involves daily sacrifice. Daily laying down your wants, your needs, your schedule, your plans...for the good of your child.
Nothing in my life has made me fall to my knees more often or more quickly...than parenting these 4 children God gave us.
If you have children, you are in it for the long haul.
STAND FIRM. Don't give up.
"So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up." Galatians 6:9
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