Parenting Is A Privilege

Do you get a little sick and tired of everything you have to do as a parent?  Parenting can seem like a chore because of the chores that come with it- getting up with crying babies, chasing after toddlers, making meals, doing laundry, helping with homework, nursing sick kids, carting kids around.  Parenting can seem like a bore because the chores are tedious and keep repeating day after day.  But God elevates parenting to a high privilege by making parents his representatives to do his work for their (really HIS) children.  When, by faith, we grasp that, we are able to keep doing the mundane, repetitious chores of parenting with a renewed spirit of eagerness and joy.

When God tells children, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord…” (Ephesians 6:1) and “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord…” (Colossians 3:20), he is telling them that it is his will that children obey their parents, for they are his representatives.  Think about that for a minute. Parenting is not just raising a child.  It is raising a child the way that God would raise that child.  It is modeling what God is like to your children.  It is teaching them all about God.  It is raising them to live in a different way than everyone else around them; to live as God’s children through faith in Christ, their Savior.  By God’s grace you have been chosen for this high calling, and by God’s grace you are equipped to carry it out.

Paul, in talking about the good deeds of mothers, puts “bringing up children” (1 Timothy 5:10) first on the list.  Have you noticed how our sinful natures can look at the duties of parenting as getting in the way of doing good things?  My attitude turns south pretty quickly when I see all the stuff I have to do as a parent getting in the way of keeping up the house and yard the way I would like, devoting time and energy to my job the way I would like, and even doing things for myself like I think I need to do.  But there is a reason bringing up children comes first on the list of good deeds Paul cites.  It is that important.  You have the privilege of raising your child to know the God who lived and died and rose again for her salvation, to trust in that God through all of life’s ups and downs, and to live a life of faith that testifies to his glory!

And the weight of this privileged work doesn’t rest on you alone.  Jesus is with you, and The Good Shepherd “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”  (Isaiah 40:11)  Not only does Jesus work in you and especially in his Word to keep little lambs close to his heart and safe in his arms, he guides and cares for the mothers and fathers of those little lambs. He loved you enough to die for you and your salvation.  He will certainly also help you be the Christian parents he has called you to be.

So the next time your parenting duties seem to be only a chore or a bore, remember that you represent God to your children.  All your lowly serving is a precious privilege granted from by a gracious God, and he will bless your efforts for your children’s spiritual and eternal good and his glory.