A Joyful Journey

As parents, we want the best for our children. Our every effort is to guide them to maturity, to cultivate within them a good heart, to equip them with the best tools for success, to enable them to find their place in this world. Those who are Christian dads and mom also seek to fulfill the Scriptural admonition to raise up a child who will fear the Lord, and so shepherd that son or daughter toward having their own personal faith.

None of us, though, can look into the future and see what the end result of our parenting efforts will be. The couple who just got home from the hospital with their precious little newborn baby is just starting a long journey. There is simply no way possible for them to predict where that road called parenting will take them during the coming years, nor to know just what that cute little bundle will be like in another two decades.

The journey of parenting is one of great joy, laughter, some tears, emotional anguish, fond memories and more personal growth than seems possible. Perhaps that is in spite of, or maybe because of, the uncertainties of the task. Regardless, it is one I wouldn't trade for any experience on earth.

If you have kids, I hope you feel the same.