“I wan­ted to watch the car­toons but I didn’t want to get my he­art dir­ty” con­fes­ses my five ye­ar old qui­te ho­nest­ly. His ol­der brot­her cor­rects him that it’s his cons­cien­ce, not re­al­ly his he­art, that gets dir­ty. I love these con­ver­sa­ti­ons which most of­ten hap­pen in the car. We are on our way home from the den­tist where the staff al­wa­ys feel the need to en­ter­tain you in the chair with not one but two te­le­vi­si­ons. I feel doubt­ful. It isn't that the con­tent would be so harm­ful but it's hard to exp­lain which chan­nels might be OK to watch when we don't have te­le­vi­si­on in our own home. It has been the same when he plays with the neigh­bor's grand­son, but they just shut it off out of res­pect so I don't need to wor­ry what the adults are watc­hing while he's in the room. With all my doubts in rai­sing my child­ren so that they would re­main be­lie­ving, it al­wa­ys warms my he­art to hear these small examp­les of con­fes­sing their faith.

I seem to have the har­dest time con­nec­ting with my ol­dest son. He is per­fect­ly con­tent to read a book or play le­gos any chan­ce he gets and does not seem to need my at­ten­ti­on very of­ten. Be­fo­re he le­ar­ned to talk I loo­ked for­ward to the day I could vi­sit my own child­ren. I have oc­ca­si­o­nal­ly tried wri­ting no­tes to him to re­mind him I still think about him eve­ry day. There was on­ce a time we thought he might be our on­ly child. Our next son is four ye­ars yo­un­ger so in some ways it feels like he is alo­ne. Alt­hough he spends plen­ty of time with his brot­her, the age dif­fe­ren­ce can so­me­ti­mes bring an ele­ment of un­fair­ness and can make dai­ly dis­cip­li­ne dif­fi­cult. In some ways he is al­so clo­ser to me as he spent four ye­ars as the on­ly child in a home of adults and when we do dis­cuss mat­ters of faith I’m al­wa­ys ama­zed at the un­ders­tan­ding God has gi­ven him. His faith, even at a yo­ung age, is al­re­a­dy gui­ding me at ti­mes.

I am trying to hang on tight as my two el­dest con­ti­nue to outg­row my simp­le un­ders­tan­dings. Per a re­cent pre­sen­ta­ti­on at mot­her’s camp, we are in the “sweet spot” of the many pha­ses of rai­sing a fa­mi­ly. All our child­ren are at home and in­no­cent­ly be­lie­ving. Still, the wor­ries come of­ten. How will we make it through the tee­na­ge ye­ars?

I'm a lit­t­le em­bar­ras­sed to ad­mit this use­less wor­ry star­ted when my ol­dest son was still a baby. I say use­less be­cau­se it has pro­fi­ted me not­hing. I am no more re­a­dy to­day when the tee­na­ge ye­ars are just around the cor­ner than I was ten ye­ars ago. As Je­sus says in the book of Mat­t­hew, “Take the­re­fo­re no thought for the mor­row: for the mor­row shall take thought for the things of it­self. Suf­fi­cient un­to the day is the evil the­re­of.” (6:34). Just as He has in the past, God will give enough strength to get through even that stage of life. The cong­re­ga­ti­on of God is full of help and sup­port, even when I don’t know to ask for it.

In the me­an­ti­me I will en­joy this “sweet spot” to the ful­lest. I en­joy ha­ving child­ren old enough to dis­cuss mat­ters of faith while still being ab­le to cud­d­le the in­no­cent ba­bies. My duty is to te­ach my child­ren all I know about faith and God will give the inc­re­a­se. I can take com­fort in the words of song #321: “So, come what may, here I can stay. My he­art to­day has eve­ryt­hing I need.” We love to oc­ca­si­o­nal­ly end the day with Songs and Hymns of Zion and al­wa­ys with the pre­ac­hing of the gos­pel. It is a good way to go to sleep con­tent and hap­py.