Parenting Fail 101- Parents of the Bible

     So we are called to be godly parents, right?
     And we are told to discipline our children lovingly and because we love them, in Proverbs and Ephesians for example?
    And we are told to share our faith with them, and that command starts in Genesis and goes throughout the bible. Not teaching the children about God was a fault even pointed out by the prophets. So putting faith in the lives of our children is a noble, righteous calling, right?

     But when we look for examples of godly parents it seems we are a little short, at least in comparison to the horrible parents. There is Ruth, who we can guess did the right thing because a few generations down the line you have Jesse who raised the man after Gods own heart. And you have Hannah, but all we really know is that she gave her son to God. And Saul managed to raise some alright kids, Michal and Jonathan, who were both crazy about David in spite of his claim to their fathers throne, not that it makes much sense that Saul would be a well spring of parental guidance. And there is Job, the loving father who would make sacrifices for his children just in case one of them accidentally sinned and forgot. He is my favorite because he left his daughters an inheritance, smart guy. And do not forget the line of godly women that raised Timothy. After that no glaring examples come to my mind.

    And even in those stories the parent parts were a side note, and the story was really about something else entirely. Nowhere in the bible do you see the story of the great parents who raised their kids to walk with God, end of story, everybody is so happy! But isn't that what we want in our churches, in our deacons and elders, especially?  That is what we are told to look for in an elder, Titus 1:6, a man whose children are not wild and disobedient. David wouldn't have been welcomed as an elder in the church. Absalom was both wild and wildly disobedient, and he was just rude.

     Most of the parents in the bible failed miserably, for example, in no special order: Gideon, Lot, Samson's folks, that lady who ate her son, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Eli, to mention a few, were all what we would call rather colossal failures by most standards. Also all the Patriarchs, except Joseph, we just don't know about his kids in detail so I guess it wasn't too exciting in a fratricide sort of a way like all the guys before him. I don't want to even count the number of times it is mentioned that a brother took out one or more of his siblings. If we know something about a family line, it is brutal and bloody.

     Is it that the good stories just don't get passed on? Happy is boring? Or does being called to greatness by God supersede your family? Or are we just seeing the acts of great men and women who's parents did something right? (Except Jonathan, he must have been raised by his grandfather or something because he was a way better guy than his father, but not good enough to be chosen by God to lead his people, though in all fairness that chance was taken from him because of his fathers pride. That whole story is totally an example of the sins of the father stuff if you ask me, which no one did.)

     It made me wonder, what do I pray for myself and my kids? That may sound crazy, but I want my children to have it all, chosen by God, led by his purpose alone, and a totally awesome godly parent instilling their faith in the next generation, but I just got to thinking and wondering, can you really have it all?

     I think I may be putting too much power in the hands of parents. The choice to be a person of God belongs to you alone. Maybe Eli could have done more to shape his sons but in the end they were the ones who chose to turn their backs on God.

We are each responsible for our own faith. I can not make the choice to accept Christ for my children. I can just hope and pray, daily, that they do. Which answers my question, I should just pray that they accept Christ and leave the rest up to him, not that it is anywhere but my own mind that I could do anything else. Alas, it is so human to have to spend a night and long blog post to come to the most obvious answer possible, trust in him, "He will never leave you nor forsake you."-Deut. 31:6b