Lessons From Parenting

One of the things I have loved about becoming a parent is that it gives me a beautiful and clearer glimpse into the heart of God as a Father. Though on a much smaller level, I get to experience what it is like to have a child that I dearly love. When my son, in his ignorance and inability to see the bigger picture that I can see, wants to run out into the street or climb the stairs alone or eat something hot or do something else that I know is not in his best interest, I reach out in love and prevent him from doing or getting what he wants, even as he pitches a fit and cries for his own way and doesn’t understand why I am withholding something from him that he perceives as good. . . Sound familiar?



How many times do we question God for His timing or for withholding something “good” from us, only to see later that what we had perceived as good was not good for us afterall? We get worried and anxious instead of trusing in the sovereignty of our God.

When my son needs to be disciplined, or when I have to let him learn a lesson the “hard way” by experiencing the consequences of making a bad choice, I so clearly see how discipline or allowing something bad to happen in a person’s life is not an indication of a lack of love, but just the opposite. Parenting children is such a gift in that it allows us to experience just a tiny bit of the Father’s heart as he guides our hearts and instructs us, His beloved children.

This parenting experience has affected me most in how I pray and in my commitment to seek a relationship with Christ. When Javen was just a couple months old, I was rocking him in his room and thinking about God’s heart as a parent, and a thought occurred to me:
How would I feel if my child did everything I asked him to do, tried to please me as much as he could, and even told people about how much he loved me . . . but rarely or never spent time talking to me and didn’t desire or cultivate a relationship with me?. . .
. . . or what if he spent 20 minutes talking to me in the morning and then checked me off his list and ignored me for the rest of the day? . . .
. . . or if he only spoke to me when he needed something from me?

There have been plenty of times in my life – and still are way too many days – when I know I grieve the heart of my Father by treating my relationship with Him like that, and I am so grateful first, for His mercy and grace toward me in those times, and second, that being a parent has given me the very humbling opportunity to view myself a little bit more as God must view me and to get a clearer and better picture of the loving kindness of my Heavenly Father.

Friends who are parents or who spend a lot of time with children – how has parenting drawn you closer to God or affected your perspective?