So much about parenting is hard. The sleepless nights, the pouring out, the not knowing what I’m doing. But the hardest thing is how little control I have over what matters most.
Jeff and my greatest hope for our children is that they’d know and walk with Christ. My greatest fear is that they won’t.
Will my children know God?
Sometimes this fear drives me to my knees. These are my best times, too few and far between, when I let desperation and helplessness usher me to God’s throne of grace.
Do my kids love Jesus?
Sometimes this fear becomes panic. Like a madwoman, I act as if I alone stand between my children and a future I fear is barreling toward them. My words come out forcefully, but not with God’s power.
Will He save them?
And sometimes, my fear leads me to wrong thoughts of God himself. I can’t know for sure whether my children will trust Him. And His sovereignty starts looking more like fate than fatherhood, His election more like impersonal algorithm than love.
This week, I opened up the Scriptures and so did one of my girls. In the same room, we read. I prayed. She highlighted. And when she shared later what she’d gleaned, I held back tears. God had spoken to her. She had insight that wasn’t from me. True thoughts of God from God Himself. I caught a glimpse of God‘s pursuit of her heart and mind. And the fact that He is pursuing her apart from me.
Parents, God wants our children to know Him more than we do. He is more committed to leading them in the truth than we are. He has chosen their times and places so that, seeking Him, they would find Him (Acts 17:26-27). He will not allow us to single-handedly set the courses of their future because He loves them more than we ever could.
So let’s teach them His Word. Let’s pray for them with tears. Let’s repent and live as examples of those being changed by the gospel. And let’s remember that we do all this because God first pursued us.
Because He chooses to pursue them through us, we tread with holy fear.
Because He pursues them, we walk on solid ground.
Note: This article has been used with permission. It was originally published on Faith’s Keeping Heart blog (https://keepingheart.com)
About the Author:
Faith and her husband Jeff live with their 4 little people in Staten Island, NY and serve at Grace Christian Church. She has a Certificate of Christian Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary and is passionate about orthodoxy for the sake of life before God and worship unto Him. When given alone time, she reads, writes, and declutters.
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