God the Parent, Part 2

Have you ever heard the story about the newlyweds who were cooking their first meal together? The young bride takes out the ham they are going to cook and proceeds to cut off both ends before she puts it in the pan. The groom asks why she did this, his mother never cut off the ends of the ham. The bride replies, “Oh silly, that’s how you are supposed to cook a ham. At least that’s the way my mom did it.” Now they are still newlyweds mind you, and they really don’t want to have a fight over a ham. The bride decides to call her mom, only to hear her say that she cut off the ends because her mother always did it that way. The bride hangs up and calls her grandmother. Grandmother says “I cut the ends of the ham off because my pan was always too small!”

What does this have to do with God and being a parent? I think it is a great lesson in our responsibility to Model the Way for our children. God modeled the way for us to live our lives through the life of Jesus Christ. When we look for guidance on how we are to treat each other or how we are to relate to God, we look to Jesus for the example. How do treat others, “love your neighbor as yourself.” How do we approach the approach God in prayer, see Matthew 6 for the prayer Jesus taught the disciples to pray.

As parents we have a responsibility to model the way for our children. The moment you realize how closely your kids are watching you is a terrifying moment. I think I first realized this when my daughter was about three. She was angry about something and was trying to tell me something with her teeth clenched, her eyebrows furrowed and was using a staccato rhythm in her delivery. I was equally angry and then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Wow, she was mimicking my behavior exactly. Throughout many aspects of her life I see glimpses of my wife and myself emerging in her personality and behavior. What do I want to teach her and model for her?

1. Loving God and serving Him is above all else.
2. Your parents and God will always love you!
3. You can’t really love anyone else until you love yourself.
4. You are an awesome person created by God for a special purpose.
5. The way we treat others speaks volumes about who we are.
6. Prayer will get you through a lot.
7. Nothing worth having comes easy.
8. Helping others is more important than collecting things.
9. You can achieve anything you set your mind to accomplish.
10. Boys can wait!! (I don’t trust boys. I used to be one and I do not want them hanging around my daughter.)

Modeling the way we live our lives was so important to God that He became flesh and lived among us. If it is that important to Him, maybe I should take it more seriously and try to be a better role model for my daughter and others around me.

That is it for this week. I will have a new post next week.