What do you want for your children?

Photo source

I will start by telling you I had a crappy evening. I almost typed day, but it wasn’t ... it was just the evening. There are times I can be patient. And then there are times my 6 year old likes to define the word disrespect and it literally KILLS me because it is not part of who I am. Who we are. Sometimes I remember what he’s going through. And sometimes I expect too much. And then there’s today when I get caught screaming at him while my pastors wife is about to knock on my {open} front door. For reals! {Luckily she knows *us* and I was really just screaming his name as I caught him doing a circus act on my bed and I feared for his sisters little life, so we’re good! Ha!}

We talked about respect and what it means to us this morning in Josiah’s therapy session {sans Josiah, sometimes just mommy and daddy get to go and vent and today we talked about adoption and respect}. We talked about instilling it into our children.

Several months ago we had a speaker at my MOMS group who suggested we write down the things we want for our children so we can be intentional about them. Together as a group we came up with many words. Generous. Honest. Hard working. Loving. Strong. Compassionate. Secure.

Good things. Things I do want to pass on. Things we probably see as weaknesses in ourselves.

But there’s something more. Something greater. The one thing I feel I cannot fail at.  The one thing I must be intentional about. The one thing that is my purpose.

What do I want to give my children?

I want them to have a faith that stands strong in their own hearts. I want their foundation in Christ to be so sure and secure that when they step out on their own and the winds blow they will not be knocked down. I want them to know Jesus. Like really, personally, intimately KNOW him. I don’t want them to live through our faith – I want them to own their own.

That is my goal.

So respect, yes I’ll take it. I might even yell for it. Or beg for it. Honesty, Security, Generosity. I want these things to be woven into their character, of course. But I hope I never dishonor an authenticity in my own model of a pursuit of Christ while pursuing these other things.

I want to intentionally train them in the way they should go, so they will not depart from it. {Proverbs 22:6}

They are watching me.