Just a thought that's been rumbling through my mind, especially in the past years...You've heard the saying, "You can lead a horse to water. But, you can't make it drink."
Well, that saying preoccupied my thoughts often in the past few years -- as we faced some of the normal challenges of parenthood (and a few of the not-so-normal challenges). Let's just say that I'm putting my children in the place of the "horses." We tried to lead to water -- in our case, water would be the Living Water - the Lord. Recent bumps in the road of life caused me to question...
- Did we help them obtain the skills and values to prepare them for adulthood?
- Did we model the values & beliefs we talk about - through actions - in public and at home?
- Did they see those same values & beliefs echoed in the activities we choose for leisure, celebration, etc.?
- Did they see similar values & beliefs in the friends with whom we chose to spend our time?
Now, it's their turn. I would like to think that they saw what we did, saw that it was good and will choose to live with the same beliefs & values. However, God gave us free will in our choices. We have set our hope on God & His Word for guidance as we journey along life. We can only choose for ourselves. And, we did choose - although not as quickly as our parents would have hoped.
Even if you can't make the horse drink the water... I firmly believe that you should lead them to it.
My hope is in the Lord for my today & my tomorrow... for my children's today & tomorrow.
So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. Psalm 78:7
Linking October 2013 with The Nesting Place
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| for the 31-day Challenge |
