Let me translate this mantra for you, and please know this is my take on this phrase.
What it really means is this: "I'm either ignorant relative to parenting my children or uninterested / too busy with other more important things, therefore I choose to let someone else / something else do it for me."
Parenting isn't at all easy. There's the uniqueness of the child to account for plus circumstance / culture to constantly contend with.
I will say regarding the former that your child is your child. In other words, they're not all that much different from you (assuming they're biological). Regarding the latter, best of luck. Prayers and patience and lots of intentionality will be required to tackle those.
-------------------------
I heard this phrase (that's the title of this post) from a client many years ago. I had the privilege of meeting with he and his wife one winter evening within their lovely home, and in spite of the dialogue being centered on personal risk planning, they volunteered this whilst finding out that I had three daughters.
This couple was rolling in the dough. As such, both were highly intelligent, ambitious, great looking business owners who'd both divorced and re-married (each other). Therefore, these were very, very busy folks, both of which weren't too much older than me. I distinctly remember feeling intimidated by them both, especially considering the trappings of the small compound they called home.
Despite all of this, my immediate internal response to their child-rearing advice was that it was a cop out.
-------------------------
If you know me at all, you know that I despise pocket computers, tablets, computer watches and so forth. I detest flying on airplanes anymore because these ridiculous devices are so ubiquitous. People walking through their life with wireless ear buds in their ears, in my opinion, are idiots. And don't even get me started on those asinine computer watches. As such, I realize most of humanity disagrees with me on this, this is my viewpoint. And I don't believe I'm off base in the least.
To summarize, I see electronics as nothing more than novel distractions that have stolen / are stealing much of the beauty of our humanity, and this process is solidified when parents indoctrinate their offspring early on in line with their own lazy, lackadaisical parenting.
Therefore, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I want to close with this.
God parented us - his adopted children - via his son, Jesus. It was his way of modeling his expectations of us as his people for us to see firsthand.
Jesus' life, his priorities, his interests reflect those of our heavenly father. And we see and hear from him through scripture just as our children hear and see us - as we live out our lives. For better or for worse...or not at all.
What do your children see when they think of dad? What would they say are your priorities for yourself and for them? How vested would they say you are in novelty? Would they purport to being "parented" by extracurricular activities / electronics? Do they see a Christian father, or would they no doubt categorize you as just like all those other pagan dads?
If you don't know for certain the answer to these, go ask your offspring, and use their feedback to their advantage. And remember, time is of essence. Very soon, they'll be adults themselves with children of their own.
No comments:
Post a Comment