Identity

Where do we find our identity? 

The simple answer is obviously in Christ. 

But life is not simple. 

So often in our busy days of teaching and cleaning and correcting and chauffeuring and shopping and cooking and bathing (did I cover everything? :D) we lose ourselves. Somewhere, somehow, we get this idea in our head of the way things ought to be and we think this isn't it.  We sit down at the end of the day and it hits us that we have failed our children. Our teenager really isn't interested in taking that missions trip. Grade schooler #1 is forever hitting his brother in frustration.  Said brother complains and whines incessantly. We forget to go over the verse for Sunday School with our preschooler. Our 3yo cannot communicate verbally and so cannot move up from the nursery to Sunday School. And don't even get me started on the trips to the dentist where you cannot hide the fact that you never remember to floss their teeth (see, I knew I  had forgotten something in that list). All these things seem to work against our ability to remember in whom our identity lies. 

We are children of The King. 

Not just any king, but the Creator of everything. 

He calls us to leave behind our earthly ideas of perfect children imparted to us by books, our own notions, and even our parents. He knows they will not be perfect and He does not judge the way the the world judges us. He takes our seemingly feeble attempts at raising our children and HE makes something of it. 

My pastor likes to talk about Marathoner Faith. Faith that's in it for the long haul. Parenting is like that marathon of Faith. If we remember that our identity is in the One who gave us these children to raise for Him we will have the strength to run this race.