This is a picture of Kozbi’s first science project back in 1st grade. You can see the masterpiece above, it was good. When I went to the parent meeting the teacher told us DO THIS WITH YOUR KID…NOT FOR YOUR KID! Science projects are meant for kids to experience science not watch their parents do all the work. This is a process where a kid gets to ask questions and explore, not listen to the parent give them the answers. The older our kid’s get we have to push ourselves to do life with our kid not for our kid.
When we live life with our child we let them struggle, allow them to question, give them direction, allow them to fail, celebrate when they succeed, and point them to make the WISE CHOICE.
When we live life for our child we keep them from risk, discourage their questions, guard them from failure, protect them from reality, and demand they make our choice…the choice we will make for them.
When it comes to FAITH one of my hopes is that parents will follow Christ WITH their kid and not FOR their kid. Faith is a process and we never fully arrive or have it all together. Parents who journey WITH their kid toward Christ don’t pretend to have all the answers they just keep pursuing Christ. When we follow Christ FOR our kids we give them a rule filled, know it all faith that lacks mystery. When we pretend to have the RIGHT answers in front of our kids we show them a shallow, controllable God who is far from the God revealed in scripture. Parents…please stop pretending to have it all together and begin to live out your faith WITH YOUR KID! What they see will do so much more than saying the right things or maintaining the right image.