Yesterday morning, on a Saturday, I got up at 4:30 a.m. to drive my teenage daughter, Sarah, to the airport to watch her depart to New York City for a mission trip with our church and YWAM (Youth With a Mission). Ordinarily, I would have been glad, even honored, to drive her to the airport for something so important. But, yesterday morning, I had a fever, chills, and a very bad stomach virus. I was absolutely miserable. Meanwhile, my wife was out of town so I didn't have any other choice but to drive Sarah myself. But so what? That's just one example of many, many things that parents do (or should do) once they become parents. It comes with the territory. Just another day in parenthood.
I often lament the fact that so many Americans go into marriage and parenting unprepared. At least with marriage, for the most part, couples in our culture that marry choose to get married (after all, shotgun weddings and arranged marriages don't happen much anymore). And in most weddings, future spouses still make vows today to stay together "for better or worse"-- for the rest of their lives. But that's not always the case with first-time parents. New parents, on the other hand, usually don't make any kind of verbal commitment to their kids--not even in those first emotional moments when they first realize that they are, indeed, parents.
Every experienced parent knows that parenting is challenging business. Life is full of suffering and hardships. Sometimes, we are thrown curve balls in our families that we were not expecting. Health problems, financial stresses, tragedy, perhaps a failed marriage. Meanwhile, our kids can also let us down with their own choices. After all, they are kids and they are busy learning how to navigate life themselves. And there are times when our children may not be willing at all to cooperate with us. With all this, we ourselves may feel like we are not up to the challenges of parenting--that being a parent is far more than we bargained for and too overwhelming a proposition.
But no matter the obstacles, no matter how difficult the challenges of parenting are, we can be the moms and dads that God has called us to be to our kids. My favorite scripture for many years has been 1 Timothy 1:7 which says that "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind." There are times where we as parents may feel like we don't have the right stuff--that we can't endure one more hardship with our kids. We may be convinced that we don't have the physical or emotional strength to do what we need to do to be strong examples of love for our children. And we're right, in our own strength, we don't have what it takes. But God, if we ask Him, will give us all the power we need to be strong, the love we need to build that intimate relationship with our kids, and He will also give us clear thinking to stay on track--no matter the circumstance. By His grace and strength, we can do whatever we need to do to be faithful parents to our children.
You may have never consciously taken a vow to your child to be a loving, longsuffering, and responsible parent, "for better or worse". But it's a promise that God can miraculously help you keep--giving you whatever you need to keep it. After all, as hard as it may be to fathom, the Lord loves your own children more than you do! He's not going to let you down. God will be there with you to carry you through--for better or worse.
