Growing Up Is Hard To Do

Shaggy the young man in the red shirt right side of the picture is our oldest. He is just a great kid. They all are. Shaggy is now 9 and reminding us every day he will soon be turning 10 in the fall. I can remember the day he was born, his first steps, and his first words. Things were easy back then as a parent. Yeah, you were tired and run down a lot but the discipline and rearing was pretty simple. You needed to teach them the basics of life and watch them grow.

Today we are faced with the harder issues and allowing them to stretch their own wings. I can honestly see how parents fall into the trap of controlling their children and stifling their development. I ask for wisdom every day from the Father about Shaggy. Shaggy is stretching and pushing back the boundaries, not in a rebellious or disrespectful way, but reminding my husband and I each day that what worked yesterday may not today. Here is the hard part. I want my children to have their own experiences with God. They need their own encounters and their own understanding of God's Word. They need to come to their own conclusions of life's toughest issues not just rely on what mom and dad believe. To allow them to only run on our spiritual fumes would be certain doom. They need to fill themselves up. But here is the tricky part. You need to ask lots of questions instead of answering them all. I want to just tell Shaggy why and what to do, but that would only handicap him in his physical and spiritual growth. My Knight and I have to rely on the Lord to supply Shaggy's needs. We still have boundaries he needs to stay in and we still impart our own wisdom, but we also need to be flexible and allow him the chance to become a young man. It is all a learning process for us as parents too. While Shaggy's wings spread and grow our parental wings are growing also. My heart wants to desperately equip my children for life not live it for them.