Proverbs 22:6  Ephesians 6:4b  Deuteronomy 6:5-9  Trigger Warning! Some listeners may find the content disturbing because of bad experiences in their lives.  Some stories may trigger emotionally disturbing memories.      [email protected] I am so excited today to talk to you about something that is very near and dear to my heart, and that is being a parent.  Being a mom or you might be a dad watching, you qualify.   We're talking about one of the hardest jobs in the whole world, but also one of the most rewarding.   Parenting in 2021 is not for the faint of heart.  There is so much going on in our world.  I wonder sometimes if I had an opportunity to go back and knew what my kids would be growing up in if I would have wanted to bring them into this craziness.  You wonder how in the world they're going to get through it, but we know from scripture that God numbers our days. He knows our birthday.  He knows our death date. Every single child that we have, God put them in this world, at this time for a specific purpose.  So, I rest in that because there are so many hard things when you're parenting, and so many of us have a deep desire for our children to love and like us. Unfortunately, that is not always a thing that can be accomplished, nor is it possible for them.   Loving us is obviously something that if we teach them about true love, which comes from God, then they can love us, even when they don't like us. Our goal when they are little seems to be just to protect them at all costs.  We would never send them out into the streets and play with a ball.  We would never just send them with a stranger.  There are so many things that you think about.  What does that mean to protect them at all costs? What if it really did cost you something. For instance, in my own personal life, I had two father figures that molested me. Well, one of them, my stepfather, I did not realize the degree that his sickness was until I had already allowed him to form a relationship with my children.  The reason is that what happened with him was so much less than what had happened before with my dad.   When I confronted him, actually when my mom confronted him, it stopped immediately. Well, other information came out, many, many years later that brought grave concern to me. I had to remove him from their life.  Well, that cost me quite a bit!   What it cost me more than anything was a relationship with my mom because that was not something that she wanted to hear. And that was very painful for her to hear after years of having a relationship with my kids.   My exact words to her were, “You can have a relationship with them, but he is no longer welcome to be around them, whether at your home or ours.” It was very difficult for me as well because my kids didn't understand it. And my mom was very upset with me. But here's what I told, not just her, but myself to allow myself the freedom to make this choice and have no regrets about it. I asked myself, what if one day in the future, fast forward five years, 10 years, what if one of my boys came to me with tears in his eyes, trying to drum up the courage to tell me that he did something to them?  I just want to leave you with a couple of scriptures that the Bible tells us are so important, as we are raising our kids at every stage.  Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way you should go and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Another one is Ephesians 6:4b, “Bring them up with discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.” If you don't already have a relationship with God, if you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior, I would invite you to reach out to us.