I was sitting in our van the other day waiting on my husband to get out of physical therapy and I began to think about my oldest kids, which are 10 and 11. I suddenly realized that I really dont have much time before they are 18 and wanting to venture out into the world. I then started thinking about how teens get lost and troubled and started worrying if I was filling their hearts, souls, and minds with the right information and tools for them to steer down the right path on their own.
I try to put my kids around people with the same ideals we do, for the most part, but also have friends and family with differing views and beliefs. After all, they aren't going to always be around people just like us. But, I still feel like I'm loosing an uphill battle with decay of society. I want my kids to be able to be true to themselves, but most importantly to God. I know my kids will stray and find themselves in situations that they probably shouldn't be in, that's just life. But, I want them to be able to have good morals, values, manners, and most importantly FAITH.
I wasn't raised in a religious home. I am a product of divorce, abuse and absent parents. The only thing that held me together through my "wilder years" was growing up as a child, around my grandma who struggled with her own issues. She fell on countless hard times, but I always remember her always and without fail, going to church for worship and fellowship. As a teen and young adult I could never for the life of me figure out why an educated woman would cling to church, the bible and God so much. That was, until I became a mother and wife. Then my own struggles, fears, and hardships got to be almost more then I could bare.
Hardships fall on us without fail, and without warning. How we deal with those circumstances is based on how we were brought up to deal with things. If I had only been exposed to how my parents dealt with things, I would most likely just throw in the towel at most everything. Marriage, bills, kids, friends, jobs...I would just give up if it got to complicated. Luckily I idolized my grandmother as a child. Seeing her keep her faith, her hope, and her convictions stuck with me. I hope to do that with my children. I hope to show them while they are still young enough to see the world through a child's eyes, that my own faith is what gets me through the hard times and that I am human and struggle every day, but find my way back to God every single time, and that He is my rock and my refuge.
I have my children in youth projects and ministries at our church that we attend. I'm always finding ways to incorporate bible verses or stories and example to them. I try to expose their minds as much as I can to the good works that God wants us to do, not only in our own lives, but others as well. I want my children to be beacons of light in a darkening and troubled world. I don't want them to fall into failure and despair. I want them to be lifted by Gods grace and mercies and to know that they are loved, so they can perpetuate that love into the world and show guidance and make good choices, and when or if they don't, I want them to center themselves back to their faith and God.
My grandmother is 85 years old this year. She still has hardships, and she still has her faith and love of God. 85 years, and even though she is becoming frail and aged, she is still as solid as any metal or rock for an entirely huge family, and to her friends as well. It's all because of her solid faith and her own foundations of God's word and Jesus Christ. I can only hope to live as long and to guide as many people as her.
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