Parenting has become uniquely challenging, partly because we have become uniquely selfish. Our day and age conditions us to think about self-fulfillment, self-esteem, and self-promotion. Our kids don’t exist for us. And we don’t exist for our kids. We all exist for God. We’re made to know Him and make Him known. Parenting is one avenue for that to happen.

Part of the reason parenting can hurt so bad is because God sometimes uses our kids to sanctify us and make us more dependent on Him. That’s the reason for a lot of our challenges. But we miss all that when we think everything exists for our glory, when it actually exists for God’s. Parenting and really all of life is always gonna frustrate us as long we think we’re the most important thing in the Universe, and failing to seek the one who made the Universe.

Real talk — God didn’t give you little Billy and Susie to make you feel like a winner when they’re good at stuff, but rather to give you an opportunity to point them to Jesus and help them follow Him, AND at the same time, drive you to your knees in dependance on Him because parenting isn’t something you can do unless you’re first being parented by The Father.

Sharing Christ with our kids, that’s the only real win.

Here’s a plot twist we seldom see coming — living for / parenting for His glory? Is where we’ll actually find our ultimate fulfillment. When we aim for His glory, our joy get’s thrown in.

whatever you do (including parenting), do all to the glory of God. – 1 Cor 10:31

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” Augustine