Laying down our parental expectations of how it should go or our how our child should act must be a regular practice. Some of us will be called to walk a journey with our children that is less traditional than most. It can stir up deep feelings of discouragement or doubt in why God would ask this of you or your child. Parenthood in general can be thankless in many ways, but Diane Dokko Kim, the mother of a child with special needs, shares how God shows up for the brokenhearted parent: “Scripture gives us vivid pictures of how God understands the brokenhearted parent: In Genesis 1, the Father of the universe prepared paradise for his children. His return on investment? A mere three chapters in, those children betrayed him. By Noah’s account, God’s heart was filled with pain, and he regretted having them at all (Gen. 6:6) … parenting offers equal parts joy and jilting, grief and gratitude. … Love demands a response but doesn’t always get one. At least, not in the way we wish. For mothers like me, Mother’s Day doesn’t have to be happy. But in God’s sovereignty, it can still be holy, and even blessed. Motherhood can be the sharpest tool in heaven’s drawer, wielded and aimed toward our sanctification. Through the thankless tasks of raising and refining our children, our God raises and refines us. The Lord doesn’t just use us to raise our children; he’s using our children to raise us. Any devastation can be repurposed in the hands of a gracious God to break, chisel, and mold us into greater Christlikeness. We’re nearer to the Cross, too, when we love, serve, and sacrifice with nary a word of thanks (Luke 23:39–43)” (Diane Dokko Kim,” God Understands Hard, Thankless Parenting,” Christianity Today, May 10, 2018, https://www.christianitytoday.com/2018/05/god-understands-hard-thankless-parenting-mothers-day/). Can we consider how God is not only interested in how our children grow, but also in how we grow too? In all the uncertainty of parenting another human, how are we trusting God with our own hearts in the process?
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