Clear Directions

Point your kids in the right direction—when they’re old they won’t be lost.


Proverbs 22:6 (The Message)

There are no guarantees when raising children. I don’t need to be a parent to comprehend this truth, because I am my parent's child. Musing over the past I wonder, “How did I manage to get from there to here?” I am a parent and the slippery nature of parenting has found me frequently on my back, wondering how I lost my footing.

The kicker is that the relationship never ends! It’s a job from which I can’t resign and don’t want to. At some point, however, a shifting of the paradigm took place and I found myself looking into the face of a person who looks vaguely like my child. All the time I've spent pointing in the right direction will now be put to the test.Will this child, who I feel in my marrow, be able to find her way?

Proverbs is a great book with bits of hard and comforting truths. However, even here there aren’t guarantees. Everyday I have asked God to protect my child from my numerous parental mistakes. But, when a child is no longer a child and with saucer eyes is looking at the world, a parent has to trust that their directions were clear.

Ultimately, that child I nurtured, loved, spoiled and who I claimed as my own isn’t my possession. She was knitted by God, created for His joy and sustained for His purposes. As parent I pointed towards the goal. From this point forward my child must choose, on her own, which direction she will take. It’s the risky part of parenting—will she go in the right direction.

Father, thank you for creating, knowing and loving me, your child.

Help me to feel Your touch, hear Your voice and

move in the direction of Your choosing.

Amen.