Is yours a public success story? Have you received several recognitions in your life through your professional organizations, educational institutions, sports records, or other categories? Do your children all have earned doctorates, published books, or have even owned a syndicated group of newspapers, perhaps? Perhaps, to a lesser degree, extraordinary accomplishments may be yours, and still you feel that you have not yet succeeded in any one area as the world sees success. What determines success?
Successful Parenting
Your greatest contribution to the world may not be something you do but someone who you raise. Parenting may well be the most important and most difficult assignment that we choose. It is definitely the most rewarding when the relationship between parent and child is loving, forgiving, understanding, and produces a safe place for blossoming. Where home provides a haven for recuperation from possible failures, as well as a place for the mutual fulfillment of a loving and deep relationship, honed by life’s demands and circumstances. What determines success?
Successful parenting demands our best and offers the best of rewards through great relationships with our children through the years.“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” II Corinthians 3:5
Building a Lighthouse of Hope
Raising children is a lifetime job – a work of art – because even as they become adults, we tend to harbor an inner ongoing story of how their life has played out, good or bad, from the way they were raised. Or, most likely, we blame ourselves for every bump in the relationship road, or by self-loading the responsibility for every failure or problem the child may encounter. Conversely, we reap the greatest joys through parent-child relationships, through the sharing of dreams with our progeny, and building a lighthouse of hope through the lives of a family dedicated to honoring God and serving others.
Parents, moms in particular, are prone to blaming themselves for every down moment, every disappointment, every failure that their child may experience. Somehow, “It must have been my fault – a need I did not recognize – or perhaps I expected too much – or, again, perhaps I didn’t let them know what to expect.” There is no perfect parent – we are all human – we must lean on God and His wisdom, mercy, and grace – God’s gift to us. What determines success? A home full of grace that is a joyful place.
Joy in Being Family
As parents, our first thought each day regarding any personal or worldwide occurrence is to how it may affect our children and their children. We are meant to be family – God’s first institution following creation. Our deepest happiness is determined by the state of our children’s life. Our greatest joy in being family is in observing their spiritual growth and their dependence upon God that produces spiritual growth.
Success in Dealing with Others
Am I exaggerating, or do we experience little bits of healing from life’s wounds through friendly human contact? Do we not transmit health into one another by being pleasant in our demeanor? Don’t you just feel physiologically and emotionally better when you engage with lovely people? What determines success? Success in dealing with others requires an understanding type of interaction.
Don’t expect people to understand where you are coming from. They do not have license to your thoughts, your background, your dreams, your idiosyncrasies, your emotions, or your ongoing relationship with God. Therefore, they cannot judge. We allow people to know what we want them to know. Having a group of like-minded people who know the Lord as your friends gives us a step up in handling the hard times, the unsure decision times, the put downs from acquaintances who may be jealous or threatened.
Build an Inner Group of Supporters
Build your inner group of supporters who love you even when they do not completely understand you or the situation. Surround yourself with a group of friends who pray for you behind your back. Who do not need the details of your life in order to pray God’s blessing upon you. These friends will understand your gifting and possibilities even during times of not understanding your present situational crisis.
We are not compelled to share our every thought with our close friends, but we are blessed to have at least one person with whom we can dump on at times, knowing that they will guard the good and let the wind carry away the trash.
You have heard it oft times quoted “The best thing you could possibly do as a father is to make sure your children see how much you love their mother.” That could be said regarding mothers as well. Being raised in a loving and God-fearing home provides a solid foundation for a child. It doesn’t mean completely without strife – or one without any problems or misunderstandings – but rather one where faith in God affords forgiveness, gentleness, reconciliation, and great understanding.
Finding Joy
Joy is not necessarily the absence of suffering or misunderstanding, it is the presence of the deepest level of worship in praising God through the pain, thanking God through the trials, trusting Him when we’re tempted to lose hope, and loving Him, even when He seems distant.
At my lowest, God is my hope.
At my darkest, God is my light.
At my weakest, God is my strength.
At my saddest, God is my comforter.
“And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.” II Corinthians 12:9
What is Grace?
Grace is when God gives us good things that we don’t deserve.
Mercy is when He spares us from bad things we deserve.
Blessings are when he is generous with both.
When we come believing God through faith, and trust him to forgive us, our eternal future is settled by His grace and mercy. Jesus has paid the price for our sins and offers us eternal life. God is a good, good Father. I hope you will watch the video below and seal your future with God today.
Truly, we can never run out of reasons to thank Him. God is good all the time.
Please watch the Great news Video on this page to find out more about the grace of God through His only Son, Jesus Christ.
