We were overjoyed when we were allowed to take our son Joshua home after his birth. Our life as parents would start! Nearly immediately, we were forced off cloud nine and thrown into eventful parenthood. A period began in which we desperately watched videos to learn to recognise baby cries and opened countless baby sleep books to find out what gets him to sleep. Our worrying thoughts varied from ‘What does he want?’ to ‘Is he getting enough sleep?’. With our second son, Samuel? Perhaps slightly easier, but of course, he had to be the polar opposite of our firstborn. Therefore, many tricks we learned with our first one did not work.
Now, nearly 15 years later, similar moments of fluster, frustration and worry are still present, continuing our eventful learning journey as parents, even after the toddler and pre-teen years. Will this ever get easier?
As parents, we are being humbled every day. We see many examples in the Bible of parents struggling to raise their children: King David being permissive of his son’s evil acts, Eli the Priest hardly confronting his sons, whilst knowing their wrongdoing, Rebekah favouring one son over the other. It reflects that parenting is not an easy task. However, as with all challenges we face, we can recognise that God is with us every step of the way if we let him.
God is with us every step of the way
Jesus lights my path of parenthood. His Word gives me guidance and perspective, helping me to do the best I can in raising them. His sacrifice and promises give me courage and zeal to do what is right. And the Holy Spirit helps me to grow in love, patience, kindness etc. Our personal walk with Jesus can be the best example for our children.
They are our children, but firstly God’s children. God promises that he knows the plans he has for them, plans to prosper them and not to harm them, plans to give them hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). Those are his plans, not our plans. He is sovereign, and we are not. And I hold on to that. Knowing that God controls their lives gives me peace and joy in raising them.
Surely, raising kids is a challenging task, but first and foremost, it is a grateful task. Certainly not in the sense of our children being grateful (yet)! Rather, we can be grateful to God as we have been given the privilege to care for our children, and can learn to trust and rely on him on the journey. We can see them learn, grow, stumble, love, cry, laugh and become beautiful individuals, exactly as God intended them to be. What a joyful journey to be a mom!
