Aspects of parenting // Are they listening?!

I know what it's like to wonder if your children are listening to you.

You, who keeps pointing them to Christ, who warns them about the foolishness of their ways.
They give you so many opportunities in just one day...to speak the wisdom of His word.

But you feel like your voice is bouncing off a stony exterior.  It doesn't seem to penetrate.  Their eyes are glazed over and looking off in another direction.

You tell them to look at you, to listen carefully.

They fidget with the nearest object, and again, you tell them to pay attention.  You say it with all the love and calm self-control you can muster...but you feel so frustrated.  Why aren't they soaking up your words like living water?  They seem to be resisting the offer and turning their heads away...in disgust.

And you beg God to work in their hearts and to please not let how irritated you are, how much you want to "whip them into shape" and force conformity, get in the way of the Spirit's work.

You tell them that this is important and they don't want to miss this and you are saying this for their benefit...

And through all of this trying to make sure they are listening, you are scrambling (in your mind) for the right words to say.  For that dose of Bible that will target the sin that is in their hearts.  And it doesn't always come to you.  You wish that you were a walking Bible, always having just the right thing to say to help them see how wrong they have been, but you are still learning to do this with your own sin.  And you don't always have all the answers.  You scan the deep recesses of your mind in an attempt to extract some nugget of wisdom you read in a parenting book once...but it eludes you.

So you pray, sometimes with your child, sometimes leaving them there on their bed.  You tell them that you need to pray and for them to stay where they are and you will be back in about five minutes.  If anything, you need to calm down.  You tell God how frustrated you are...you cry into the nearest pillow...you beg him to help you teach your children his ways.  And he does.

It may not be the way you think it ought to be.  But it is what it is.  And God knows exactly where you are at on this parenting journey.  Turning to him in utter dependence is the best thing you can do.  Every time.