To Parents: Don't Feel Guilty

Raising a child is a demanding call, one that cannot be accomplished by sticking to rules and regulations alone.

Parenting is the deepest connection that a man and a woman can have, outside of themselves, and parenting does not stop when the child is away.

Yet the more that we trust in our Heavenly Parent, who showed His love for us in sending His Son to die on the Cross for us, there we can draw on the capacity to love others, including our children:

"We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4: 19)

When we are properly parented, knowing and believing that we have a Heavenly Father who cares for us, then what reason do we have for worrying about our own children:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." (Matthew 10: 29)

And Jesus had already established that we are worth more than the birds:

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" (Matthew 6: 26)

If God is taking care of us, and He is more interested in taking care of us than in taking of the birds, which are doing quite well, then parents should stop feeling guilty if they did a bad job being parents in the past.

If you feel that you have failed your kid in some way, the best that you can do is acknowledge what you did, for better or for worse, then let your son or daughter go with the blessed knowledge that your and their Heavenly Father is watching over them:

"And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.(Acts 16: 31) Parents, do not feel guilty, therefore, if you feel that your kids are not succeeding as you had hoped. If your children are down and out right now, you must inform them that in Christ, they have received perfect right standing, and that He will never leave them nor forsake them (Hebrews 13: 5) This is very important, I believe, because in Christ there is no condemnation (Romans 8: 1), and therefore parents must not let their guilt about the mistakes that they made in the past preempt them into pitying their children when they are adults. Sometimes, it is best to walk in faith, and just pray, knowing that the prayer of a righteous man avails much!