The pastor at church used this verse yesterday as his text and we were really challenged. He has been preaching a series on family relationships and yesterday he spoke about parenting. He emphasized how parenting is building a relationship with your child, not just addressing behaviors. If you have your child's heart, the behavior issues fall into place. Even when your child disobeys, he/she knows he can trust that you will be there for him/her. One illustration he gave of a father who was not there for his child. He encouraged his daughter to jump in the water over her head and assured her he would catch her. However when she finally jumped, he moved and she went down spluttering and coughing. This and other such actions had a major impact on her that by the time she reached high school she could not trust him. Our children are our greatest assets. The encouragement to us was to build a relationship of trust with Zoe so that she will want to give us her heart. We were challenged to let her know we have her best interests at heart and will always take care of her to the best of our ability. The lesson was to put our own agendas aside and put our child first. His last illustration really drove this point home. A father wrote of how he constantly got impatient with his son, even getting irritated when he had to put down his paper as his son kissed him goodnight. Standing at his son's bedside that night, he realized that he had corrected and humiliated his son, but had not shown him any love or affection. His resolve was to make a difference in his relationship with his son. As new parents, this sermon has challenged us in raising Zoe and given us goals to strive for.
