Posted in Encouragement

When my oldest child was a toddler, and then into his preschool years, he was very energetic and needed a lot of "hands-on training."  There were days when I wondered if raising him would ever get easier.  He was, as they say, a "handful."  Frankly, for the first four years of his life, I was exhausted.  Now, though, when I look at him, I see the early signs of a young man I can be very proud of.  He is thoughtful, polite, funny, and confident.  Today, there was a circumstance that was trying for me, and my son was right there to give me the encouragement I needed just when I needed it.  I was so proud of his sensitivity and compassion.  Moments like these seem to come more often as the years have gone by.  Moments like these give me great hope.

Parenting is hard work.  Homeschooling is hard work.  In the early years, it seems as if there is very little pay off for all the time and effort invested.  And yet, there is hope for those who are faithful and consistent in the everyday, day in, day out training and teaching required in raising and homeschooling young children.  The pay off really is coming.  The truth of God's Word is that if we "train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old, he will not depart from it."  What a blessed promise on days of discipline and diapers and messes!

With each child God sends to my husband and me, there comes those early days of intense training.  Each one has had to be taught to obey, to say "please" and "thank you", to behave nicely in public places.  Child-rearing is a work in progress.  The days can be long, but moments like the one today with my son make all the work worth it.  And the thought of spending eternity with my children keeps me going on the longest, roughest days.

Raising little ones is hard, but I realize they don't stay little for very long.  Some day they will be grown and I will look back on these days with fondness (I think).  It will be worth it.  It's already beginning to pay off.