The Long View

It's been a little over nine months of adjusting to two kids. The longer I am a parent the more I realize that parenting is just one of the many things that require one to take the long view of things. Babies don't just eat solid foods well overnight. Kids don't learn to sleep in a big bed overnight. Kids aren't potty trained with the snap of a finger(ok there are some exceptions out there!). And all of those practical things which are important for me to teach my kids just scratch the surface. My kids don't learn the truths of the gospel quickly and they certainly don't come out of the womb knowing how to obey. So taking the long view of things means keeping at it. It requires endurance to do the same things over and over and over and over. It requires patience. It requires reliance on God. It requires wisdom. For the most part it requires not taking the path of least resistance. I have found that what requires less work now does not take the long view into consideration. When I am tempted to just "ignore" the temper tantrum or the "No way, did he just say that to me!?" moments, I have to remind myself that 1) If I don't do something about it now, I will miss many opportunities to point out the sin in my kids and the reason they need the gospel. 2) I will miss the opportunity to establish that God has given me authority of their lives for a season, that will be really important when they are older---the teenage years come to mind! 3) I would be sinning by not doing now what God has given me as my responsibility in nurturing and training my kids.

Is taking the long view hard? Yes. It takes more work. Is is worth it? Yes, but boy am I glad that I don't have to do it alone!