Only You Can Do It!!

I was a cheerleader for my Christian high school when I was a teenager, and I can actually remember a lot of the cheers we did. Our job was to pump up the crowd, keep the energy high, and try to encourage the ball players on the court. (Although, according to my ball-playing son, I’m not sure they ever actually heard us.)

One cheer we did often was “You can do it if you try.      V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!” (Catchy, right? 😊 )

I’ve thought about that a lot as I’ve talked to parents through the years or read what others have written for parents. There’s an awful lot of cheerleading going on. You can do it! Keep it up! Yay you!

And, there’s definitely a place for that! We need to encourage and build one another up— that’s part of the beauty of living in community, you have people to do that.

Although I absolutely believe it’s true that You CAN do it! My heart for you goes much further than that!

I believe with all my heart that ONLY YOU can do it! For whether by birth or by choice God put your family together, and in His wisdom He made you the parent of your children. He CREATED you to parent those kiddos— and He created those kiddos to be parented by you. He makes no mistakes, so even the child you’re afraid you’ll never figure out.. or may even struggle to connect with at all.. was perfectly placed in your family.

Years ago, I was introduced to a song by Keith and Krysten Getty that God really used to shape my view of parenting. There’s a lyric that says, “Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds; help us grasp the heights of your plans for us.”

Oh, mom and dad, how little we grasp the heights of God’s plan for us as parents. How often we under- estimate our ability to serve Him and be used by Him within the four walls of our home.

I really do believe that when God called you to be a mom or a dad and He providentially put your family together by giving you the children He designed for you to parent, He actually gave you the greatest gift and the highest calling you’ll ever have in your entire lifetime.

So, I guess this is a little bit of a cheerleader message this week, but we all need a little encouragement from time to time, right?

Therefore, my encouragement for you is this.
Stand in awe of the calling and privileged position you’ve been given as a parent.
Be amazed that God in His great wisdom and infinite goodness put your family together the exact way He did.
And, commit yourself anew to pursuing His best for your family no matter the cost.

Only you can reach your child’s heart. Only you can parent him the way God wants him to be parented. Only you were created to be your children’s mom or dad.

Leave a Reply