Faithful Parenting
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For 2012, my pastor picked this verse to be our church’s theme for the year: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Each month so far, he has preached on a different topic relating to that theme. This month, the topic is perseverance.
This past Sunday, he preached two sermons on the topic. The sermon’s were entitled, “Keep on Keeping On” and Sunday’s night’s was: “Faithful to the Finish Line.” While the main theme of these sermons was to persevere in the Christian life, or to be faithful in church attendance or Bible reading, I realized I felt convicted in another area. The area of parenting.
If many of you have kept up with my blog posts, or even the little areas of my life through Facebook, then you know that my son has SPD. He is also a toddler. You put a special-needs child together with the terrible twos and you get… well some crazy moments and maybe some chaos too!
No parent’s job is easy, but honestly at times I feel so overwhelmed with all the therapy and doctor’s visits, and all my son’s needs that sometimes I just want to give up. Sometimes when my son is being a regular toddler and just throwing tantrum or hitting for the 4th time that day, I just want to throw in the towel and be done.
It’s sometimes so easy to want to say…
- “Today I am going to just let him watch tv all day.”
- “Today I am just going to let my son eat crackers all day because it’s too hard to sit at the table for an hour and try and get him to eat.”
- “I don’t feel like taking him to therapy today.”
- “I don’t feel like dealing with another meltdown or another time-out.”
I know as a parent I am not the only one with these feelings. Sometimes being a parent is just plain old hard. But as I learned this past Sunday, the key to parenting is being faithful. Let me explain.
In the morning service this past Sunday, pastor talked about Noah. Noah was a man who was faithful to God. But if you think about it (and as my pastor pointed out) he was one of 8 Christians on the entire earth. Can you imagine being one of eight left on the earth? I can’t. Think of how hard it would be to stay faithful to God. Not many other people were doing it, it would have been easy to give up.
Then God told Noah to build the ark, and as I know a lot of you know this story, things got bad for Noah. People made fun of him, no one believed him, he was ridiculed day and night. but as in the title of the sermon, Noah kept on keeping on. he continued to build the ark. And when that day finally came, and the rain started to fall, I know he was glad he was faithful to obey what God told him to do.
Parenting is a little bit like the ark. God gave you your children and in my case, my son for me to raise. He knew my son would have SPD, but that doesn’t mean he made a mistake. It will be hard, it will take years of work, and for awhile you may wonder how your parenting will turn out, but in the end it’s going to be worth it. Why? because you followed God and were faithful to the end.
You got through those, hard times, those temper tantrums, those days of time-outs, potty training, hitting, throwing, and whatever else comes your way. You kept on keeping on. And you are going to be rewarded just like Noah was. You are going to eventually see the fruits of your labor and hopefully one day our children are going to come back and say, “Thank you. Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for being so faithful.”
So my encouragement to you today and also to myself is this: Parenting is hard, but don’t give up! Persevere and be faithful. God is watching and He knows every hard day that you go through. Whether you have a special-needs child, a strong-willed child, a toddler, or a teenager, He knows. And all He asks is that you are faithful. He will do the rest.
“Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” -Matthew 25:23
Oh you are so right! Parenting is the hardest thing I’ve ever done but it’s the most important thing I’ve ever done too!
So true! Every day is an adventure for sure! đ
Very inspiring! My daughter is only 2 months old, so I know God has a lot planned in the future for us. But we will all go through things, it’s important to remember God will never hand us more than we can handle without him.
And Happy Memorial Day Weekend! đ
Thanks for the reminder! Sometimes it’s seems like too much, but then I remember I am trying to do it in my own strength instead of God’s. Life can be crazy at times and you are right, we all go through these things, but it’s good to know God is on our side. Thanks for commenting!
These thoughts are so beautiful and so true. Believing that God is in charge and knows what is right for us can be tough, but it also helps so much. Knowing He believes in me helps me to believe in me.
Stopping by from SITS. Have a great weekend.
Thanks for stopping by! I like what you said: “Knowing He believes in me, helps me to believe in me.” So true!
Thanks so much for this encouragement. While I think the harder days are likely ahead, being that my littles is not quite 9 months old, God grants us grace to get through it all. Faithful to the end, now that sounds like a great epitaph. (Sorry for the odd sound of that.)
Hi Jelli!
Thanks for commenting, doesn’t sound odd at all! đ My son was 9 months when his feeding problems started and newborn when some other problems started, but even at this young age it’s hard to imagine what might be ahead, but like you said I am glad God grants us the grace to get through it all.
Oh my – those days seem never ending, and then we get to do it all over again tomorrow! I love your perspective on this….we need to be ALL IN with Christ, and we need to be ALL IN with our parenting.
I know! It can be so exhausting! ALL IN – I like that. đ Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
So glad you linked up today!! Thank you again for all your help!!! This is a great post in the sense that no matter how hard it gets….God is there for you, and for your little guy. Can you imagine years ago before this was a diagnosed disorder…without help?? I was a Spec Ed teacher as you know and w/a lot of experience w/spd…so if you ever need someone to listen đ you know where to find me!
đ Blessings! Michy
Thanks! It’s so funny because when I saw you posting about this link-up I was like wow I have a blog post with the almost exact title! I have thought about that a lot. What did people do back then? I guess back in the day there wasn’t a lot of these crazy disorders. Makes me wonder why we have so many. It makes me sad. That is awesome that you taught special ed. I am still learning so much about this SPD, there is just too much to learn, but I try. Thanks for commenting!
This was just what I needed this morning. It spoke to me even more directly because of the fact that my son’s name is Noah, and he seems to be the bent of my parenting woes most days. He is exhausting and beautiful and constantly strong-willed and increasingly sweet all at the same time. I needed the reminder to be faithful and persevere. God will bless my willingness to never give up on parenting him “God’s way” even though it would be so much easier to throw in the towel and let him do what he wants. Your words are inspiring. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks so much for stopping by and reading! That’s funny that your son’s name happens to be Noah, such a great name too. đ I understand where you are coming from, some days are just so hard! I know God will bless your perseverance and you’re going to look back and see God’s blessing on these days. Thanks so much for stopping by and for your comment!
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