"The Myth of the Perfect Parent"

I encourage every parent to read the article "The Myth of the Perfect Parent" over here.

As I think about our ministry, our role in ministering to the families and students here at Eastview, there was one thing that really spoke to me in this article. The author talked about the prophet Ezekiel and his constant attempts to draw the Israelites back to God. From the article:

"How successful was Ezekiel? The destruction he foretold played out in every gruesome detail. From our vantage, Ezekiel's mission looks like an utter failure. But God spoke a few words in this narrative that changed everything. As God commissioned Ezekiel to speak his words to Israel, three times he prefaced his commands with this phrase: "whether they listen or fail to listen" (2:5, 7; 3:11). One of those three times God completed the sentence: "Whether they listen or fail to listen … they will know that a prophet has been among them" (2:5)."

Over the past few weeks, I have been in conversations with parents and ministry team members about what we do here....should we focus on fun? Should we focus on Jesus? How can we get kids to "care" about their faith? As much as I wish every single student in our ministry would give their whole lives over to Jesus, reality and statistics say that this not going to happen. And this saddens me incredibly.

But I find hope in God's Word. We cannot be responsible for the choices our kids make. All we can do as parents and a ministry is be faithful to God in proclaiming what He has done.