Battles They Have to Fight

I want to protect my children from harm.  I want to shield them from germs and traffic, buffer them from heartbreak and disappointment, insulate them from embarrassment and mean kids, and shelter them from pain.

A good portion of my parenting hours, especially during the early toddler years when children are blessed with increased mobility and cursed with increased recklessness, have been devoted to preventing disaster: keeping kids from diving headfirst off the back of the couch into the floor, stopping the shoving of utensils into strange orifices, advising against the sled ride down the stairs in the laundry basket.

Just the basic keep-them-alive drill. 

Utterly exhausting, but pretty straightforward.

Of course, the types of challenges, dangers, and hurts they'll encounter will change as they grow.  They'll have fewer scraped knees, but more bruised feelings.  They'll encounter battles that they have to fight on their own. 

I could constantly pray for their protection, asking for hardships to pass over them, but more and more, I find myself praying that my children will feel God's presence and remember to call on Him when they're in the midst of those hardships.

I can't forget that the same God who watches over me, watches over them.

 

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7 comments

  1. Wow. I've read this three times. Thanks for the reminder. I have the same fight on my hands.

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  2. Great point! It is simply impossible to shied them from everything. We do our best to protect them, but hopefully, we can also give them the tools to cope when they are faced with hardships - ine of those tools is definitely faith.

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  3. Prayers of protection is key. It's so important (but hard) to remember that they grow so much through those hardships as well. I think that's the beauty of life... the bumps in the road make you wiser and draw you closer to God.


    Congrats on your fourth day of your blogging challenge. Way to go Robin!


    Wishing you a wonderful weekend.
    xoxo

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  4. Such a balance to strike, isn't it? Knowing that they'll need to face challenges in order to grow, knowing when to step in and help versus when not to try to "fix" matters.

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  5. Indeed! They'll have to grow into it for themselves, just as we did.

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  6. Mari CoronaOctober 05, 2013

    Very nice share :)

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