Do I Really HAVE to Grow Up???

 
 Sometimes I wish I just did not have to grow up!  I don't know about anyone else, but there are definitely days when I wish I did not have to be the adult and take responsibility for situations around me.  
     As a mother of 6, pastor's wife, homeschool teacher and business owner, I can honestly say there are days I would love to be carefree and irresponsible.  Now, do not mistake my meaning - I LOVE my life and would not trade places with ANYONE for the world!  My children, my hubby, friends and family are all wonderful, but there are times when it would seem easier to just drop everything and go back to bed, play video games, read a book or go to the beach and build sandcastles all day!  However, I also know that once I got back from my trip to "Neverland", all my responsibilities would still be here waiting for me, so.....I press on!
     In today's world, I see more and more how teenagers leave high-school with no real goals, sense of responsibility or even work ethic.  I always think "I want more for my own children!"  Sure, I want my kids to love me.  I want them to look to me as a friend, a buddy.  I want them to WANT to hang out with me!

But most of all, I want them to be all they can be!

 I long to see them be all Christ has planned for them to be.  If by attaining that goal, I am not always their best friend, then so be it!  If I have to
cause my children disappointment by telling them "No!" (what?! - gasp!) a time or two, so help me I am willing! (and we do so on a regular basis:) I know that I have a lifetime to be a friend to my child, but only a few years to teach them as their mother!

     A mother and father have really only a few short years to teach their impressionable offspring the things that really matter.  I am realizing as each day flies by, that my time for making "an impression" is quickly fleeing away. 

 I want our teaching to stick!  

I want their manners, education, ethics, standards, respect for authority and love for God and His Word to be lasting in my kid's lives.  I know that I have years to be my child's friend, but seemingly only an instant to be their educator.  I know that in order to do this properly, I do have to grow up!  I have to be responsible - how else will my children learn except through their parents' example?

     I see teenagers and young adults every day who have not been told "No" enough when they were younger and, now, although I am sure that parent meant well, that same teenager is ill-equipt to deal with the responsibilities of an adult world.  In REAL life, things are not just handed to us.  In REAL life, we must work hard and be responsible to succeed.  This is a basic Biblical principle for living.

"For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.  But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.  For every man shall bear his own burden" - Galatians 6:4-6

     I know, I know - I need to get off my "soap-box" now.  Believe me, I am getting down in a minute. I guess what I am trying to say is that I do not have to be my child's "friend" or "hang-out buddy" all of the time.  I want my children to think I am fun.  I want them to WANT to be around me.  I also WANT them to succeed in life.  My desire to see them succeed now supersedes my need for them to think I am "cool".  The rules my hubby and I have made for our home are put in place to protect our children.  If my kids do not like those rules right now, that is fine!  It is too bad - but it is fine! :)  My kids do not have to like the rules, but they will learn to follow them.
     I remember I did not always like the rules in our home growing up, but I am SO VERY THANKFUL for those same rules today!  Those rules kept me out of trouble.  Those rules kept me
from having the wrong friends.  Those rules kept me from doing things to ruin my testimony and my future.  I am thankful, now, for those rules!  I am thankful that although my parents probably always wanted their kids to be their friend, they also wanted their kids to succeed.  I am very close to my parents now - they are two of my best friends in this life.  I love the relationship I now have with my mother and father, but I would not trade the parent/child relationship I had in the past for it.
     I guess, I am saying that I want to be my child's friend, but I also know that I have to grow up in order to teach them how to grow up!  I have to make the hard decisions.  I may even have to hold them back now in certain areas in order for them to soar to greater heights later in life.  My prayer each day is that God grant Andy and I the strength to raise our little "Sturmites" to be responsible, God-honoring adults.  I believe in doing the "grown-up thing" now, my children will one day still be my "best-est friends".