A Little Parenting Secret

God is actively involved in parenting my kids. And why not? He loves them more than I do. What my kids don’t know – if I’ve told them, they probably don’t fully believe it – is that God has chosen me to be His partner in their upbringing. This means He often works through me and gives me insights, revelations and – yes – information that I would not otherwise have. You mean God tells me what my kids are up to when I need to know? Yup. Even if they don’t want me to know? Yup. Let me give you an example. Nothing bad and my daughter wasn’t trying to hide things from me – but it was something that God wanted to give me a heads-up about.

When my oldest daughter wanted a Facebook account I agreed because she had proven herself trustworthy, obedient and careful in other areas. Nevertheless, I sat her down (probably multiple times), explained the dangers and went over some hard-and-fast ground rules. In addition, I signed up for Facebook myself and insisted that she “friend” me. I was sure I wouldn’t need to read her every post but I wanted to have at least some idea of what was going on.

Well, one day late last year, one of her friends commented or posted or some such thing and, in the ways of Facebook, this item appeared on my page. Nothing unusual about that. The friend was a guy. Nothing unusual about that either.

But God tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a nudge to check out this particular guy. Okay, I thought, suspecting the nudge might be because there might be some romantic interest brewing with one or both of them. I read his blog and became somewhat acquainted with the young man. And wouldn’t you know it? Three months later, my daughter asked if she could go on a date with him. Boy was she shocked when I laughed and, instead of giving her the third degree, told her I already knew who he was and was comfortable with her going out with him.

Isn’t God good? If I had been surprised, I could have had a less-than-wonderful reaction. I might have felt I needed to insist that he come for dinner first so I could grill him (I did that later!). My daughter might have thought I was being unreasonable about a guy that she had thoroughly checked out. And if he had turned out be a clunker, I would have been ready with real reasons for counseling my daughter away from him.

God continues to give me insights and information. I don’t always share it with my kids right away. Sometimes He’s preparing me and sometimes He’s letting me keep watch while he’s preparing them. Either way, it’s nice to know He’s someone I can count on.