Parents, Even If You Feel You’ve Failed, Start Again Today

One of the hallmarks we hope to achieve with Stand Firm Parents is to be transparent and realistic. And in being transparent and real, we must admit the unfortunate reality which is that most all of us parents fail at times.

I have. I do. I did today.

I imagine all of us fail in doing our best to raise our children up in the Lord. At times, we fail in doing our part to disciple as parents.

If you’re like me—you long to—you want to—you want to do all you can to impart a deep, lasting faith in your children. But life gets busy, it’s not always easy doing the right things, and sometimes you want to just be lazy. That’s me. I have lofty dreams of all I want my wife and I to do to teach our children about truth and help them walk in it now and in the future, but I don’t always follow through.

Just tonight we skipped our family nighttime reading, when just this morning I renewed my commitment not to miss another night. I have great excuses—church went long, my wife was on an important phone call, I was tired, and I had copies of Jesus and His White Horse to sign and mail out. Six months ago, I was prompted in my own devotional time to share with my girls some resources about creation and I still haven’t done it. It’s been even longer than those six months since I began wanting us to adopt a new missionary to pray for regularly.

I’ve really struggled to keep my devotional time the past couple of weeks. I’m failing at having opportunities of getting caught doing that by my kids. And I sure shouldn’t have smarted off to my wife this morning. I should have stopped work this afternoon as soon as my girls got home rather than continuing to work.

Yeah, I often fail as a parent. Yeah, I often procrastinate. Yeah, I often don’t follow through.

Can you relate? Surely, I’m not alone? Come on, don’t hang me out to dry—admit it, if it’s the case.

And as unfortunate as the reality of that we do fail, is the reality that we do have responsibility to teach our children. If we’re not intentional about doing so, it’s not going to happen. They will not come to know the truth automatically. They will not come to value you the Lord and His ways by osmosis. The Lord makes clear in His Word that parents must teach their children and set the example. We see this in passages like Deuteronomy 6:6-9,

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. – Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (NIV)

The Lord instructed His people to teach their children truth. It isn’t going to happen automatically.

I don’t say this need to guilt me or you about our failures, but to say that despite our failures the need to impart truth to our children is there. So, even if we feel like we’ve failed and dropped the ball, we need to get back up, dust ourselves off and get back at it.

Parents, even if you feel you’ve failed, start again today. Our children’s spiritual lives depend on it. Let’s not give up, but let’s continue on. It’s never too late to start until it’s too late. As long as we have access to our children, regardless of their age, we can start.

Now it may not be easy, but the need is worth the difficulty. It’s worth the challenge.

So, parent, even if you feel you’ve failed start again—start today.