What Way Are You Going?

"Train up a child in the way he should go – but be sure you go that way yourself." - C.H. Spurgeon
I saw this quote at the bottom of an email from a friend and WOW, ain't that the truth!?  What way are we teaching our children to go?  Children are a mirror of us and as my daughter grows older, I've seen things in her that really irk me but upon close inspection, I realize it is because it reminds me of myself!  God uses children to make us better IF we let Him.

I've heard mothers say they couldn't homeschool because they can't stand to be around their child all day or they don't get along.  However, that is the reason WHY they should homeschool - to get along with their child(ren) and to learn to "stand" them.  Sending them off all day just because you can't get along, will only push them further away from you and you will lose their heart.  I want my children's hearts and I want them to be trained up in the correct way of living and life and I want them to see God work in me by using them - and believe me, He does!

I don't want to look back 15 years from now and realize this way too late.  We can't afford to live for ourselves in selfishness and lose our children's hearts by letting them be trained by those who teach them opposite of what we do.  The time to care isn't when they have left us and the house of God.  The time to care isn't when they are pregnant out of wedlock or hooked on alcohol and drugs.  The time to care is when they are growing up.  That is the time that we sacrifice what WE want, what WE want to do and serve others in our home - husband and children.  You won't be able to get those years back.

I've had many women tell me over the years and even recently of their regrets with their children and/or lack of children.  For them it is too late and they have to live with that day in and out.  They warn me to not follow that path - the one of putting off having children and the one of being too busy to actually "be" with your children.  They are living examples for me to look at it and they grieve for the choices they've made.  Some of them have children who have been out of the church for years and it looks like they may never return to God.  Some of them had a tragedy happen and lost their child and they wished they could go back and have more children but it is too late.  I hear these stories in person, in email and by comments left on my blog.  Women hurting and living in regret for listening to the anti-family culture and sadly, even some preachers that spread this filth.  That is hard to hear but it is something that I'm a voice against to warn other women from making the same regretful choices.

What way are you going?  What voices are you following?  Think 20 years ahead from now, will you regret the choices you have made or are making?  What are the lifelong consequences of shoving your kids aside because you can't stand to be around them?  When instead, you could have let God have his work and learn to get along with them day in and day out.  If you don't have their hearts, someone else will!