So I started something when I considered realising potential and then I went a bit further when I explored a little about playing out of position. This is not so much the conclusion of a trilogy as an exclamation point in an ongoing paragraph of life.
Most parents would understand the sentiment of wanting the best for your child, or wanting to see your child be happy. I am certainly the recipient of two sacrificially loving parents who wanted to see the best for their children.
Now as a father of three incredibly beautiful daughters (they get their looks from their mother, their jokes from their father and their blessed characteristics from God), I am often wistfully looking at them at their various stages of growth. I consider the world in which they grow up in. I consider the dangers and challenges they face even now. I also look at the wondrous opportunities that await them. How can their God-given talents impact their world even from where they are and where they will be?
So far in me journey of fatherhood, I’m at the stage where I’m not too concerned about the girls being a success educationally, socially or materialistically. Yes it would be pleasant if they had the social and cultural tools to progress and establish a good sense of stability as defined by the culture of the day – high quality education, good paying job with prospects, in a good social network (not just online but in physical life as well!) and positioned in a great place to develop vocationally.
That would be great. But that wouldn’t be my ultimate desire for them.
Rather I would love each one of my daughters to grow in wisdom and grace. I’d love for them to grow with a great capacity for self-awareness where their acknowledgement of flaws and failings will give them the space to be compassionate and merciful to people from all walks of life.
It would be my greatest delight for them to have a deep lifelong passion for knowing Jesus Christ in His fullness and its implications for their lives. For them to be a part of real community both as church family and their engagement in their locality building relationships and investing in the lives of those that God calls them to with hearts that are not conditioned by selfishness, but by those Kingdom values of righteousness, peace and joy.
Mistakes in their lives will be almost as inevitable as mistakes in my own. I hope they have the wherewithal to confess their sins and repent committing to a life of continued repentance and never considering themselves as having reached anywhere to be complacent or rest on laurels.
As the three daughters chill out on my settee and we all watch TV together (Dr. Who – The Rebel Flesh, quality first part of a two-parter), I think of these things and thank God for the blessing of children and the responsibility to take care of them until the time when they are given over to God’s care in total.
As I think of these things as well it again occurs to me that all these things I desperately desire for my children can be greatly supported by them witnessing a model of that life lived out especially by their parents. It’s not just wishing, praying, hoping and fretting. It’s enjoying life. It’s growing in grace and wisdom. It’s pursuing Christ overtly and transparently and naturally. It’s making mistakes, acknowledging them and going through the process to have my character refined to be like Jesus. It’s being responsible and mature without being morose and a bore. All these things and more.
God only asks that I walk with Him to live this kind of life, so that when my daughters reach the stage where they are fully responsible for their own destiny they would have an idea of a path they could take. When they reach that point, they can see there is an alternative to the model that the world has to offer. All because God blessed their Dad and in gratitude he chose to live all of his life just for Him.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 