Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

I was wondering to myself the other day why I like people who admit that they don’t understand everything. I’m talking about people who are leaders in their fields, whether it be theology, medicine, or psychology. I guess I define a brilliant  person as one who knows his limits.

Before my husband and I had children, we just knew we were going to be brilliant parents. After all, our parents had done a great job raising us. With all our education, surely we could do an even better job ! We had four children in six years. And things went relatively smoothly until the first one started to school. But in the years that followed, as each child faced distinctively different cultural values and went through unique stages, my husband and I started wondering how much we knew about parenting after all.

At some point along the child-rearing way, we realized what God meant when He said not to lean on our own understanding. We were humbled by parenthood. But God showed us  mercy by intervening each step of the way.

Thought:  In the challenging task of child-rearing, I need God’s strength to compensate for my lack of understanding.