This past weekend was a
bittersweet time for me. I watched as my
daughter’s boyfriend proposed to her. Many
emotions flooded over me as I watched him get on his knee and ask her to spend
the rest of her life with him. The
excitement I saw on her face as she accepted his proposal was one I had seen
many times. One of my favorite pictures
of her is seeing that same excited face as I was baptizing her and she was
committing her life to Christ.
As I looked at her that sunny
afternoon, I was taken back to that day when she decided to live her life for
Christ. My thoughts quickly moved forward
to the future as I imagined how proud I would be to see her raise Godly
children with her new husband.
For 22 years now, God has given
me the responsibility of protecting and caring for her. Now I will willingly pass that God given
responsibility to another man. It has come with much prayer and many sleepless nights. It is hard to hand my little girl over to
someone who doesn’t have the life experiences I have or who hasn’t gone through
the stresses of budgets, marriage, children, etc. Yet this is the guy I have been praying
for. I have asked God to provide her
with a man who will lead my child and grandchildren to a closer relationship
with Him and I ask for someone who will step up to the plate through those same
difficult situations I started experiencing for the first time 25 years ago.
At the end of the day, I have so
much to be thankful for. I have children
who seek the Lord and want to follow Him.
I have children who truly grieve when they fall short and want to
restore a life that honors Him when they slip up. I have children who want others to see Christ
in them.
There are a lot of things that we
want for our children. We want them to
be financially taken care of. We want our
children to be successful in their career.
We want them to be respected among their peers. We want them to be good at sports, art,
drama, etc. Yet with all of that, the
only thing that is of the utmost importance is that our children honor God and
grow up to live their life for His Kingdom.
If the only thing my children accomplish is honoring God, then I will
truly feel like a successful parent.
