When we’re in the middle of parenting, it feels like it will last forever. But as we all know, it doesn’t!
Every parent will some day come to the end of their parenting journey and ultimately the end of their life. And when it’s all said and done… here are 6 things SAID NO PARENT EVER:
1. I wish I would have spent more time at work.
2. I sure am thankful I had Facebook all those years to scroll through and occupy my time while my kids grew up right in front of me.
3. If I could raise them all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.
4. I invested way too much time preparing my children for life and the personal and spiritual challenges they’d face.
5. I really wish our family would have spent less time in the Bible together, less time at church, and less time in prayer.
6. I think I gave my kids way too much of my time, too many bear hugs and displays of physical affection, and said “I love you” way too often.
… SAID NO PARENT EVER!
Every parent I talk to who has raised kids who are now out of the house always tells me the same things:
- “They grow up so fast.”
- “I wish I’d have done more while they were young.”
- “Enjoy every moment, because it will be gone before you know it.”
Why is it so hard for us younger parents to really grasp the reality of those statements. We hear them said all the time, and we even know that they’re true, yet the routine of daily life seems to quickly blind us from their reality.
Determine in your heart right now that you will do today what you know you’ll wish you’d have done years from now with your kids. Love them, invest in them, hug them, pray with them, read the Bible with them, go to church with them, teach them, train them, discipline them, laugh with them, cry with them, wrestle with them, eat your favorite ice cream with them, tickle them, tuck them in, kiss them, pray for them… because the day will come when many of those things won’t be optional anymore.
Don’t be guilty of getting to the end of your parenting with a boatload of regrets and “I wish I had’s.” Fight the urge to cave in to personal convenience, selfishness, weariness, and even simple ‘adulthood’ that often keeps us from being all that our kids need us to be for them.
Yes, it takes a lot of work and self-discipline, and it’s not always easy, but “Hey, parenting is a piece of cake”… SAID NO PARENT EVER!
