There is no option or shortcut in parenting.

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Parenting is as endless as being a child of God.

How dare we take a break or retire from parenting while alive?
Retire from parenting if you must, the same day you do not need God as a Father.
In matters of discipline or expectations from your child or parents, do not expect any more than what you are delivering to God as a child.
As children of God we never become adult enough to live while still in the flesh guiltless lives. Therefore the wrongs we see in our children are likely the same in our lives.

Jokingly I said to my son Nathaniel “Why are you such a baboon?”
“I am sorry papa”, he answered, “I could not help it, and it was in my genes.” (Humor). In reality this is not far from the truth. “The Acorns do not fall far from the oak tree”. Seniority or chronology does not determine the responsibility toward the one whom you brought into the world without consulting them first. We are no different from those who believe in abortion when we seek to wash our hands by divorcing from our kids.

You might say, “Ah but you do not know my children and how abusive they have become and disrespectful, selfish and very opportunistic and bottomless pits that I can not believe they are my children.”. “Sometimes I think about the milk man, except there is no such man in our neighborhood.” (Humor)

Since our children are our first responsibility in life and only second in priority to our spouses and God, we must take this matter very seriously. A parent is never more vulnerable than when he judges his children about their shortcomings before others. Guess who raised those kids to the kind of adults they have become?

“It is not wise to throw stones while you live in a glass house.”
Even if our children may not dare to throw stones back to us and our glass houses, those listening to our words about our children might be our friends but in their inner core they will take sides with the under dog for no other reason but for not being there to speak to defend themselves.

 In the same way, if you sugar-coat too much your words about your children and family, you take the risk to be found overcompensating for secret shortcomings in the private closet of your lives. Not every body likes coffee without sugar or coffee with cream and sugar. Silent on this matter might be a virtue for some, but invites others to imagine without the benefit of the doubt that self-disclosure brings.

 

Am I exacerbating you? Good! Then you must be one of those who care for family.

You must be like the mother of the sons of Zebedee that came to Jesus on her knees, with tear in her eyes to ask a favor for her sons.
She knows her sons better than anybody else and she knows them to be “The sons of thunder.” She is not sure about her son’s future and wants to make certain by securing and answer to her “wet prayers”.

“What is it that you want” Jesus asked.
She said, “Grant one of these two sons of mine sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”
Even though Jesus says, “You do not know what you are asking.”
Jesus’ answer is only a judgment over the content of the prayer but not against prayer.

This woman is our representative as a parent.
In other words, what she is saying is, “Dear Lord, what I have not been able to accomplished as a parent for my children I am asking you to help me as a favor to me who suffers with the consuming uncertainty that the temper of my boys might be self destructive.”
This woman does not know how to pray but believes in prayer. Faith in Prayer is by far better than praying itself.
God who sees the heart is still in the business of making a straight blow with a crooked stick, so the glory might not be of the one who prays but of him who recognizes Faith where faith is present.

“The righteous shall live by faith”.
“Without Faith it is impossible to please God.”
“All things are possible for him who believes.”
Would you happen to be one who feels he has failed as a child or has been a miserable parent to his children? Then, this is what we must know and believe together, “Parenting never ends in this life, just as the parenting of God over us never ends.”
“I will never leave you or forsake you”, says the Lord.
Do not think it, “as too little and too late.” God has you where he wants you, without option but “wet prayer”.
Prayer and tears is a powerful combination to come before God. 
God uses our children to work in us and through us that which through life we have resisted in vain.
We must love graciously our children and love them to the end in the same way, as we need to be loved by God every day to the end.

I just returned from a family reunion and the Baptism of my latest Granddaughter Aaliyah Kay of Caleb and Kelly in Tacoma Washington.
What a sight to see my son “The Reverend Nathaniel Harry Gutierrez Marshall officiating the baptism of Aaliyah Kay.”
I would go to the ends of the world to see my family and take their vital signs and afterwards always fall on my knees in front of Jesus as when they were small babies as Aaliyah.

Pray for me that I might love my children as the Father loves me.
Mean while, let us pray together and join our feeble prayers to the strong intercessory prayers of Jesus to the Father. Let us pray for our children and us. I will be praying for you who are in my prayer list, as I would do it for my self.

Gerry Gutierrez.