The window is getting smaller. I thought about this as I watched our grandson, Brody, play basketball on Saturday. He will be in the fourth grade this calendar year. That is only nine years away from high school graduation.
9 Years!
Nine years before he finishes high school. That is really not much — at all. If it sounds like a lot of time, you might ask the parents of this year’s high school graduating class (2020). Many of them will tell you, “I just don’t know where the time went.”
This week I was reading journal entries that I wrote to our daughters the first few years of their lives. Charlotte and I deeply loved these two little girls. We wanted, more than anything, for them to love the Lord, for them to surrender their lives to him, and for them to be deeply connected to the church. Yet, rearing children in the Lord may be the hardest work that I have ever done.
Now we have grandchildren. Sully (4), Lincoln (5), and Brody (9). Sully has a brother or sister who is due in a matter of weeks. Charlotte and I pray for these little boys regularly. We pray much the same as we did for our own children. We pray that they will love the Lord, that they will surrender their lives to him, and that they will be deeply connected to the church.
In many ways, this is an ongoing spiritual battle as it was with our own children. After all, the evil one would like to influence them to disregard the Father and his desires. The evil one is in a battle for their souls and desires to have them as his own.
In the meantime, we pray for them and for their parents. We pray for those who teach them. We pray for their friends and the friends of their parents. We pray.
As I read these journal entries, I remember that we were young parents and certainly didn’t know what to do much of the time. I am so thankful for every single person who was a godly influence in the lives of our girls. We are so indebted to so many, many people.
One one occasion, I went to a couple in our church. Charlotte and I needed help with our teenage children. I remember sitting at their kitchen table asking questions and listening. I will always be grateful to Bob and Laura.
Being a parent has taught me so much about humility and my own need for God. More than anything, I have learned to pray on more than one occasion, “God, I don’t know what to do.”
May God help us all.