Our Inconvenient Kids

 

Kids can be a real inconvenience.

• When all we want to do is get a job done
• When we want to read in peace so we can grasp whatever we’re trying to understand
• When we want to get in and out of a store at lightning speed
• When we want to get from the car to the house in a flash of seconds so we can get to the bathroom or the ringing phone
• When we want to enjoy a whole meal without interruption, or, even enjoy it while it’s still hot
• When we want to worship without being disturbed or distracted, you know, in spirit and truth 

In these times kids can be an inconvenience.

I cannot find one time in the Bible when children are called an inconvenience. I do see that they can try and test us, as with the son who does not listen to his father’s instruction in Proverbs and the son who was so unhappy about the treatment his father gave his prodigal brother in Luke 15. But, when God talks about being a parent it is with respect for the role and for the child.

Psalm 103:13 says, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.”

The compassion and kindness, the patience and persistence that are required of a parent are sometimes demanding and inconvenient. It can be faster, more productive, and more efficient to do it ourselves, leave them home, or ignore their need to learn how to do something. But, when we ignore that need, we are the only one satisfied and only in the moment.

One of the biggest concerns about “convenience parenting” is the way a child learns to understand him/herself.  They are always in the way, too slow, too aggravating, or just not worth the effort to teach something new.

There is also the concern about worshiping the Lord. If a child learns that they are in the way, too much of a distraction, or too “fidgety” to sit in a worship service, what will there assessment of “worship” be? Won’t it look like something for serious adults and not for kids just learning to sit still and behave for an extended period of time, no less a teen who is able to understand but may still be a bit of a distraction for a Mom who just wants to worship in peace?

Just as we teach our children how to use good language and eat using good manners as much by the example we set as by intentional teaching, so our children will learn to worship by our example. Are they in church with us to see it? Has it been easier to leave them home or send them off with someone else so worship can be undisturbed?

Parenting can be inconvenient but, from God’s perspective, we should expect to put our time and energy into the children He gives us while they are young. He associates words like “diligent” (Deuteronomy 6:7), “discipline” (Deuteronomy 28:18, Proverbs 19:18) “instruction” (Proverbs 13:1), “righteous”, and “integrity” (Proverbs 20:7) with parenting.

The good news is that when we follow the commands to consider our children a gift from God and raise them in the fear and instruction of the Lord, not our own convenience, the words connected are very encouraging. “Reward” (Psalm 127:3), “blesses” (Psalm 147:3), “rejoicing”, “delighting” (Proverbs 8:31), and “confidence” and “refuge” (Proverbs 14:26).

We will come before our holy God regarding how we parented our children.

For the diligence, discipline and instruction we exercise with our children, we will receive reward, blessing, and rejoicing all wrapped up in the greater possibility of raising a child who will love, fear, and worship the Lord.

Sounds worth a little inconvenience to me. (Hmmm, if the Bible doesn’t hint that children are an inconvenience, should I even use the word?  I’d better check my own attitude and vocabulary.)