The essential goal of parenting is to teach a child the way the world works. To help them understand the cause and effect of life. Gravity is real, and falling hurts. Every choice has a consequence.
This is a challenge for parents for a number of reasons. Our adorable little babies have a sin nature. No parent has to teach their kids to be selfish or mean.
Like a good parent, God does not give in to our immature demands. He patiently guides us toward a true perspective, a proper understanding of how life works.
Like children, we often dislike the truth. We prefer magic, where we can just change things to get what we want. We can waste a lot of time looking for a shortcut, or stalling, hoping for another way, like a child wishing the peas would disappear from their plate so they can have desert.
The Lord is a perfect parent. He knows much better than we do what is in our best interest. And this is a key reason the choice to trust God holds so much power for living life above our circumstances. When we live with the reality that God wants our best, knows what is our best, and is seeking our best, even times of difficulty can be times of joy.
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
– Hebrews 12:11