Shepherd

I've been re-reading Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp & it's such an amazing book. One of those books you could read each month as a constant reminder of biblical parenting and encouragement. Anyway, last night a paragraph really stood out and I thought I'd share it.

"You must regard parenting as one of your most important tasks while you have children at home. This is your calling. You must raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. You cannot do so without investing yourself in a life of sensitive communication in which you help them understand life and God's world. There is nothing more important. You have only a brief season of life to invest yourself in this task. You have only one opportunity to do it. You cannot go back and do it over.
You live in a culture in which there are opportunities for you to do things unheard of in history. You are presented daily with scores of options for investing your life's energies and creativity...you must therefore prioritize. Parenting is your primary calling. Parenting will mean that you can't do all the things that you could do otherwise. It will mean that you can't develop every interest that comes along. The costs are high...but the benefits far exceed the cost."

(The title Shepherd is also meaningful because it was supposed to be Blake's middle name. That is, if Joe had agreed with me. I lost that argument and he's Blake Joseph, but if I had my way he'd be Shepherd all the way!)