PARENTING: OUR MOST IMPORTANT VOCATION

PARENTING: OUR MOST IMPORTANT VOCATION

 Let’s begin with a rather humorous story that aptly sums up the extremely difficult challenges that are part and parcel of parenting.  Owen Wister, an old college friend of Theodore Roosevelt, was visiting at the White House.  Roosevelt’s daughter, Alice, kept running in and out of the room until Wister became exasperated and blurted out, “Isn’t there anything you can do to handle your daughter?”  Roosevelt simply smiled and responded, “Well, I can do one of two things.  I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice.  I cannot possibly do both.”

 Every parent (or grandparent) has experienced those ‘mind-altering-moments’ when you literally feel like tearing your hair out, if you have any remaining follicles.  Parenting is emotionally draining and exhausting, but it is undoubtably the most important natural stewardship on the planet.

 And here’s why.  A classic child development study set out to prove that crime is caused solely by environmental influences.  Over the course of 17 years, two psychological experts studied hundreds of prison inmates and, much to their surprise, concluded that a life of crime is not directly traceable to environment, poverty, or oppression.  Rather, crime is the result of individuals making wrong moral choices.  Their findings were later verified in a Harvard child study that determined that crime is largely due to the result of proper moral training during the formative years, ages one to six.

 These conclusions should cause every parent pause.  Although raising children can be an entirely exasperating enterprise, in the midst of the major obligations and powerful distractions of daily life it is mission critical to maintain a laser sharp focus.  Because the future of our children is largely dependent on our ability to sustain genuine love, adequate support, wise guidance, and yes, consistent correction.

 This is a tough road to hoe in America where we have an overpowering legacy of individualism, which sometimes manages to erode foundations of virtue, morality and righteous living.  In our time, adulthood is mostly defined as being able to do what one wants to do, not what one is supposed to do.  And in the eyes of far too many, making a baby is a sign of status; caring for one is not.  Standards of right and wrong are often seen as old-fashioned or rigid.  And marriage has become more of a temporary hobby than a lasting covenant commitment.  The result is a deteriorating family structure.  As former surgeon general, Joycelyn Elders, states, “It is easier for many children to find drugs than it is for them to find hugs.”

 My friends, we’ve got a tremendous amount of work to do.  Our society must resolve to reaffirm the role of ‘parent’ as an honorable, esteemed and high calling.  It is my conviction that public schools should grant more resources, i.e. increased time and attention, to developing practical life-skills, not just academic achievement.  Maybe I’m just venting today.  Perhaps this devotional is just one aging man standing on his proverbial soapbox.  Nevertheless, I am totally convinced that if our society does not do a much better job of equipping the parents of this and future generations, we are in grave danger of damaging or destroying what we have always valued and treasured most, our children.

 Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET OUR SOON COMING KING. Maranatha!