When you become a parent a world of great responsibility is placed on your lap. You are suddenly entrusted with the complete and total care of another living person. It is incredible if you think about it. Your job as a parent will require great wisdom and discernment. Your child will expect you to know the big answers to the big questions. He or she will trust your answers and your decisions.
The loud voice of a child will call out from your bathroom, “Check please!” At this call, you are expected to show up and make the great, wise and discerning decision as to whether your potty training child has properly wiped. You are expected to come face to… well not-face… with your child and inspect those areas the child would let no other inspect. The child will trust your judgment and either wipe again or perhaps even ask you for assistance to clean up what he or she cannot see. You will then assist the child in the correct steps in finishing the great task. Sometimes the child will not call at all, but you will know to check on the child because he or she has been in the bathroom too long. Truth be told, many times you will not want to check. You will think, “You are too old for this! Do it yourself!”
The thing is, this task does not change as your child gets older. I am sure that even when my children are grown there will be times when I will need to take on the daunting task of inspecting those areas of my child’s life that no one else sees. It will still be my responsibility to help my child discern whether he or she has finished correctly the jobs that he or she is capable of doing. I may have to expose to my child messy areas that he or she cannot see. I will need to risk getting my hands dirty as I reach in to give the help needed. I can imagine I will at many times still be thinking, “You are too old for this! Do it yourself!” I am thankful for the practice and preparation.
I pray that as our children grow they will continue to call out to me, “Check Please!” I pray that when they are in doubt of their own capabilities and unsure of their own success that they will still trust me enough to call. I don’t know what the sound of a teenager calling for help sounds like. I pray that I will. May I be keenly aware to those times when they have been behind a closed door too long. May I always have the heart to check, because that is what matters most.
Psalm 139:1
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.
