Introduction

When our first child was born, God revealed to me, like all parents, some of the most amazing blessings he has for us, his creations. The birth of my daughter Ella changed my life in ways that you understand if you are a parent, and will understand when you become one. There is so much literature and expert advice on parenting, and for certain, I am in no way and expert on the topic, so this is not about child rearing. What this is about, is the hundreds of little lessons God has taught me everyday about my relationship to him, through my relationship with my children.

We are God’s children and he relates so many aspects of his love to this parenting relationship. There are depths of His love that I am certain I had not begun to glimpse until having children of my own, and feeling for myself that complete self sacrificing love for a helpless child. I’ve known the love of a child for a father and that was how I related to my Heavenly Father, but I had no glimpse whatsoever onto what the omniscient mind of God might be like until I felt the love he created for me to feel for my children.

He’s used this love of a father to demonstrate, sometimes comically and other times tragically, lessons that have enriched my soul and brought me closer to Him. There have been numerous moments when I have been interacting with my children when I feel almost a tingle or an “aha” moment when God has used the very words coming out of our mouths to teach me. I’ve tried to capture many of these moments to go back on and ponder, to not forget the lessons he’s trying to teach me. I’m writing them down so maybe in some way they might help others as well.