Not for The Faint of Heart. Or The Lazy.

Do my children argue?

Of course they do.

Do they tease each other?

Yup.

Are they required to apologize to each other, way.too.often?

Yes.

Do they tell on each other?

:::sigh:::

Even though they are 8 years apart, they are siblings to the core.

And yet, this is my favorite part.

When they laugh, care about, think about, pray for, play with, teach and help each other.

Being a parent is challenge, because teaching them never stops.

Ever.

Teaching them how some behavior is just not acceptable.

Ever.

How your life is NOT about you.

How your goals should never reflect your selfishness, but instead HIS glory.

How to take the extra, uncomfortable step to be kind.

How HIS Word should be the foundation of all your thinking.

How to be  good relative.

And a good friend.

How sometimes you have to walk away, even when you wish you could hang around.  But if someone doesn't want you around...they just don't want you around.

How to respect other's decision, even though you know it will lead them to disaster.  Or at least pain.  Not that you shouldn't show them the future, but at one point...it is their choice.

How to swallow your pride.

And the hardest part about all this, is that you have to live it yourself.

You have to confess your failures so they know that you need to keep on going , even when you fall.

How I have to remember that life is too short/too long to live it for myself.

As parents, our job is to teach & discipline when they are young, and then to guide when they get older, and to respect when they become adults .  ( Granted, when my adult kids say or do something that just is NOT acceptable, they WILL hear it from me.  Always.)

But in the end,

HE is good.

And our children should reflect that fact. In how they treat others.  And each other.

Everywhere they go.

In everything they do.

Will they fail? 

Yes.

Do I?  

OF COURSE!!

May HE grant us parents the patience, grace, perseverence, integrity, discipline, hope, knowledge, humility to raise the only real investments we have. 

Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’  Deuteronomy 4:10