Children or Puppies?

"We were thinking about having kids until we heard your message Sunday. Sounds like too much work - we're looking for another puppy!"

Now that's funny! I got that in an email this week. I laughed out loud.

It's true though. Parenting is very hard work. It is not all fun and games. In fact, way too many parents don't play any games at all with their kids and that's part of the problem. But I digress...

Parents are a special breed. God has given us a very awesome responsibility. He has entrusted the future of His church to us. It is our job to develop children to become adults who find and experience God's Best in their life. It should be our number one job and our focus. Of course, that comes right after loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. If we are doing that, we will fully embrace this role of parenting. God has not only given us this responsibility, He has also given us all the resources we need to accomplish the task. He has not set us up to fail. He truly wants us to succeed as parents.

However, kids still have a choice. We can do all we can with God's help and resources to develop them but ultimately they have to respond to it. God equips us but then we must leave the results to Him. God is not going to rate us on how our kids turn out but on how we use the resources He provides and the methods and motives of our parenting. Just like sharing God's love with others, we just have to be obedient and leave the results up to God. People may or may not respond to His love. Doesn't matter. We just have to be obedient.

So get to work. Or go get a puppy.