Socks: Lance PateA child's foundation is crucial
I could not believe it took me all day to realize! There were three meetings, the visit to the elementary school and even lunch with leaders from another church, but it was not until my drive home that I discovered why my shoes felt so uncomfortable. The socks I was wearing were not mine. They belonged to my wife. I had to laugh.
Before you form a false mental picture — and to preserve what is left of the masculinity I have — I need to explain that these were your average black socks. Forget any suit and pink socks image. Yet, since the birth of my son three months ago, it appears that moments like this will be the routine rather than the random.
I'm learning that mistaken socks, tag-team dining, midnight diaper shopping and the bedtime bounce in Daddy's arms are just beginning steps to raising children. The problem is, these are my memories. Aside from the frantic action shots with the camera, my son will not completely remember the insane hours my wife and I have spent trying to get him to sleep. He will not recall every detail of smiling and cooing in my lap or of Mom keeping a consoling hand on him as he fusses in the car seat.
So, what is he getting from this? Why would God allow this whirlwind time to occur seemingly without my son's knowing? I am realizing that this time provides the soil where his young roots are be planted and will develop. The scary part is that my wife and I have been put in charge of gardening!
No matter how we prepare this soil, whether fertile or full of thorns, he will begin to determine what relationship he will have with my wife and me as well as with his Heavenly Father. His understanding of security, love and trust will all be created from this beginning. This is an enormous responsibility to have for someone who only weighs about 13 pounds.
Although he will not remember the circumstances of the fussy car rides in the back seat with Mom, hopefully, the soil nurtured through her constant touch will help him understand there is peace in uncomfortable times, and when the time comes, be able to accept true peace from a relationship with Christ.
After witnessing the tag-team dining, I pray he understands cooperation between a husband and wife and expects this in his own marriage. Surely he will not remember the mistaken socks. But, hopefully, when similar embarrassing moments happen, his learning that all mistakes can be forgiven will keep him from being torn down by failure.
The path our children choose will be their own, but the foundation we, as parents, lay for them is crucial. Never before has the passage from Proverbs 22 become so real in my life. I pray that as a parent, my heart can rest in the attempt to "train up a child in the way he should go, so that when he is old he will not depart."
|
return up (" Socks: Lance Pate ")
