Parenting

This past weekend our church hosted a parenting conference for any and all parents who needed help, ideas, encouragement, and resources to be a better parent.  It was a good turnout, but we always wish more would show up for this important responsibility.  I am so grateful for the children’s ministry at our church.  They do an incredible job of loving children, teaching children, and loving the family.  Their passion to love and build up the family is encouraging and needed.

This workshop reminded me of how God led me when I was parenting my girls.  I wouldn’t say I was the world’s best parent, but the one thing I learned from my parents was making your family a priority.  As a father I have been given a great task and responsibility to love and care for my children.  God has made me a steward of their lives for just a few short years.  That time was so critical and valuable to my girls and to me and Sabrina.  God used it to help me understand my Father’s love for me.  God also used them many times, when they would say to me, “Daddy, hold my hand.”

I remember holding the hands of my girls and walking beside them when they were children. Sometimes I would hold on to them tightly and then God would remind me that they belong to Him.  No one can hold them like He can, yet He has entrusted us, parents, to hold, guide, instruct, discipline, and love them as a priority in our lives.

My strong natured Hispanic father loved his family.  He was a disciplinarian, but he also wanted to be around us and he wanted to be a good father and parent.  As I watched his life ebb away on that hospital bed, his family was around him and he was still being a great parent…holding my hand.

I am so grateful for Barbra and her staff making parenting a priority.  Thank you for reminding me of the gift of parenting.