Our ultimate objective as Christian mothers is to see our children walk in their God-given destiny, not to make them happy. A variety of things make our children happy. No boundaries and late nights watching television make kids happy, as does a pile of sweets and loads of soda, as does letting them run wild in a toy store.
Our ultimate goal as Christian parents is to see our children walk in God’s purpose and plan for their life, not to make them happy.
Happiness is based on “happenings,” but joy is grounded “in Christ. I am yet to come across a Bible saying that God wants to make us happy. The Bible mostly speaks of joy, not happiness. When we focus intensely on raising happy children, we implicitly teach them that life is awful when they are unhappy.
It’s that kind of mindset that provides kids ice cream to make them feel better when they’re down. When kids get bored, they get new toys or watch hours of television. But this only teaches children that external factors can remedy a lack of happiness.
No other circumstances can make a person fulfilled; only Jesus Christ can accomplish that!
Yes, it is your responsibility to keep your children healthy and secure, but your ultimate responsibility is to bring them to Christ and disciple them.
As Christian mothers, if we desire anything for our children, it should not be happiness, but rather that they become the people that God has called and created them to be.
What I want for my child is for him to know God’s love, for him to embrace Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and for him to know God’s grace and overcome obstacles. I want him to stretch himself and discover what God has placed inside him to achieve big and mighty things. I want him to have a lifetime desire and thirst for God’s word, as well as the opportunity to experience things he never imagined possible.
I want him to take chances, to fall and fail, and to experience what it’s like to get back up with scratches on his knees.
I want him to understand that “failure is an event, not a person,” and that he can bounce back. I want my child to have the compassion to “empower” people, not merely feed them. Give a guy a fish, and he’ll eat for a day; teach him how to fish, and he’ll eat for the rest of his life.
I want him to be a mirror of God’s compassion for the world around him. I want him to be kind and loving. I want him to have a Kingdom effect in the lives he crosses. I want him to believe in who God says he is and walk in Kingdom power. I want him to be confident in who God says he is.
Teaching our children how-to live-in accordance with God’s plan results in a relationship with God and everlasting life; simply wishing them to be happy is insufficient.
Author: Kim Petitt
Kim Petitt holds a graduate degree in psychology. She holds a bachelors in communication and a associates degree in business administration with a concentration in office management. She is the mother of a twenty + year old male.
The journey of motherhood for Kim is quite unique being that she was a teen mom and living with a physical disability. The challenges she faced caused her emotional pain and loneliness, but because of her faith and relationship with God she didn’t give up and continues to overcome through Christ. Her heart’s desire is to reach out to teenage girls and young moms and women from all walks of life to teach them how to overcome their own personal challenges that keep them from loving God and themselves.
You can connect with kim by visiting her blog @kimpetitt09
