I am the proud parent of 3 girls, they are my pride and joy.Hilary is 27 and lives with her husband and 5 kids in New Hampshire, Alyssa is getting ready to turn 19 and just finished her first year at college on the presidents list and Maddie is 17 and just finished her Junior year in High School. Through the years they would try to bribe me and their mom with the fact that when we need a nursing home that they get to choose the facility. 🙂 Diana and I have been married almost 24 years and even though there are times that we want to pull out our hair we are blessed by our girls.

Being a Pastor people thing that your kids are the most perfect kids in the world and do no wrong. Let me tell you something there are no perfect kids in the world and the only reason some kid seem perfect is because their parents haven’t caught them doing what they are doing wrong yet. When our kids became older they grew into making their own minds up about certain things and troubles came their way that effected the whole family. In those times of troubles we would feel that we let our children down and didn’t do something that prepared them for this trouble.

Rest assured there are troubles that our children are going to go through, there will be rebellious times that are going to happen. But something that I have to be reminded of and that we all as parents need to be reminded of is that if we have truly poured ourselves into our children and given them the right paths to travel we must trust that God is over them and guiding them.

I can remember back to growing up and telling my parents that they just didn’t understand what I was going through and never would. Funny how history repeats itself and our kids say the same thing to us today.I see that technology is the biggest difference between what our parents, ourselves and the kids of today go through, it is easier for kids to get in trouble or to cause trouble for other kids. So remember we said the same thing to our parents and they reacted the same way that we do to our children.

So the next time our kids tell us that we don’t understand them, just take a moment and instead of blowing up at them or getting frustrated with them, take a deep breath and flip a switch, stay calm and chat with them and ask in a calm loving manner what is it that you don’t understand. Maybe just maybe you get a different response, it may not be right away it may be years away, but I promise that light bulb will go off and they will get it.

I end with this story, my oldest daughter was the most rebellious head strong child you could know. She lived with my first wife in New Hampshire and came down to visit, when here there were rules to follow and that was not good for the rebellious child. Now she is an adult, with kids of her own and she told me that all those years Diana and I were right in the way we tried to raise her. That in of itself is a blessing to know that no matter how frustrating things can get as parents that we aren’t bad parents and our kids will be OK.

Be Blessed,

Pastor Rick