Becky Crenshaw

Luke is five-years-old and skips to the beat of his own drum.

He is smart.  He is cuddly. But he is honestly just downright quirky, too.

We love all of his quirks.   I love that the very first thing he does when he comes home from school is change into a pair of pajama pants and a cowboy hat.  He could survive on cheese sandwiches and Ritz crackers.  We love that his arms are long and lanky and he carries a batman LEGO man with him everywhere he goes.

He is 110% boy and a tad bit quirky.

This morning he came down to me, waking up too early for his own good, and climbed up onto my white, slip-covered couch.  Grabbing a fuzzy blanket, he curled himself up into a ball and dozed back off to sleep.  As I type this and glance over my screen at this precious lamb, his eyes closed and his mind careless,  I know God has called Him to God-sized dreams.

Every day of Luke’s life is before the Lord.  In full completion.  All of the quirks, all of his gifts, all of his disappointments, all of his victories, every accomplishment is already laid out.  The day he pulls away for college, the moment he kneels to take his bride’s hand, the first time he holds his own child — already recorded in the book of the Lord.

The calling of Luke’s life is in him right now.  Residing within his teeny-tiny body is the call of a great and mighty warrior.

You saw me before I was born.  Everyday of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  Psalm 139:16-17

Parenting can be a daunting task.  Seriously, what was God thinking to entrust us to childrearing?  I loose my keys at least once a day.  And I am quirkier than all of y’all put together.

But King David’s words give me great comfort as a mother.  It is not my job to “make” Luke a great man.  It isn’t Brent’s responsibility either.

Our job as parents is not to shape our children.

Our job is to Shepherd them to the One who shaped them.

Our job is to shepherd the hearts of our children to know the God of their call.

Take a moment today and stare into the eyes of your child.  Inside those eyes of great wonder is an anointing.  A calling.  You may be looking into the eyes of a missionary.  The eyes of a musician or an engineer.  The eyes of an investor or a pastor.  But without a doubt, you are looking into the eyes of God’s favorite.  The apple of your eye, as well as His (Psalm 17:8)

Shepherding the heart.  Not shaping.  This is the high calling of Parenthood.

Lord, equip me as a mother to point my children to You.  Let me not toil in molding them into what I want for them to be, but let me be sensitive to Your calling on their lives. Oh that we would know your more, Lord, so we can offer You daily to our children.  Thank you for the high calling of Parenthood.  And thank you that you equip us with everything we need – Your Holy Spirit within us.  I love you, Lord Jesus.  Be honored today.  Amen.

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17:8

By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  We have received all of this by coming to know him.  The one who called us to himself…. 2 Peter 1:3