The Sobering Reality of Parenting...

Brian here--It's been a while since I posted on our family blog; I have been wrapping up the school year with planning, end of the year parties, and saying goodbye to our friends, Dave and Kyra. Dave will be taking over the ministry at UC Davis, and although we will miss them tremendously, I'm excited for Dave to be able to lead a ministry that is in need of change.

Two things happened this week that stood out:

1-I received an email from a parent who was dissatisfied with her son's experience of being involved in Campus Crusade here in Chico, and felt that her son should have been selected to our leadership team.

2-During our end of the year planning, the staff team and I take time to evaluate the spiritual health of our students. It's not scientific by any means, but helpful as we seek to lead our students toward Jesus. It was amazing how many of the attributes of our students could be traced back to how they were parented.

So often I beat myself up for not being able to bring about transformation in student's lives. These two circumstances reveal that often times we are fighting against 18 years of parents reinforcing selfishness, failing to teach their kids about Jesus, helping them with relational skills such as conflict resolution, honesty, and coping with failure. These are just a few, but it's truly sobering as a parent to consider whether I am parenting out of personal convenience or sacrificial love.

Aubrey and I have been reflecting on 3 key attributes that we want to trust the Lord for in raising our kids: an interest in learning, able to use time wisely, and able to interact confidently with adults. At first glance they sound good, but as we have spent time considering them, they have become great. We definitely do not want to surrender the privilege of instilling these types of things in our children to anyone else.