His said, "I can't believe you said that to your child."
And I said, "I know, but it's true."
And it is. Here is what I said, "It isn't my job to make my kids happy. It's my job to make sure they become decent people, but that's it."
This is true. We humans have this cotton candy and Christmas stocking vision of childhood that we feel we must make happen for our kids. Like, we are supposed to make sure their childhoods look like they live in the land of Oz.
Where did we get this idea?
Do you know what happens when all we get our kids a life of cotton candy?
A bunch of sickly kids!
If we just spoon feed them these happy lives, why are we surprised when they can't handle adversity? Sadness? Disappointment? When we can't let them deal with things, how are they ever going to figure out how to deal with life when it comes to them and we can't rescue them?
If we can say we had a childhood, we are blessed. Sure, our parents most likely made tons of mistakes but if we didn't have to live on the streets and learn to fend for ourselves from an early age, we were blessed. If we have the capacity to dream for things, to think into the future, we have been and are blessed.
When my husband and I were in Somalia while in the Army, we knew a little boy named Mohammad (that was most every boy's name). I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but my husband did. He talked a lot to him. When Shannon asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he had no idea what Shannon was talking about. He didn't even have the capacity to think about possibilities.
I will say it here and I've told my kids and I believe it is the way it is supposed to be: God first, my husband second, my kids third. That's how my priorities go. And as they grow and leave the house they go down to number four. It has to be this way for the kids to be stable. If they see Mom and Dad are stable they have a stable base to grow up on where eventually they learn to depend on God for everything. In that growing up stage we have to learn to let them hurt and get sad and be disappointed and be bored and feel insulted and offended and even feel like we are terrible parents. Let them be mad. Let them sulk. Let them pout. No, the world doesn't revolve around them. It doesn't revolve around us. It and we are supposed to revolve around the Son.
In Colossions 1:15 - 17, it says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
That's what life is about.