Patty and I raised eight kids, all of them are married with their own kids now. As I think back on those days one thing, I remember more than anything else was the many nights I laid awake fretting and worrying about some event or circumstance that one or more of our kids was involved in. I was fretting about whether we had made a right decision or if in the future we would. I was always thinking about what we had done and what we should do better tomorrow. I was in an almost constant state of grieving over some dumb thing I had done or said. I enjoyed our kids immensely and they added so much to my life, but I don’t miss the constant pressure to be a good parent that didn’t mess up their kids future. I think the pressure of parenting grew my prayer life more tan anything else, I was a constant day and night prayer, and most of my prayers were for our kids. I prayed for and about every detail of their lives. I prayed for wisdom for both Patty and I to make right decisions and say the right words.

I went to a high school basketball game tonight to watch a grandson who is on one of the teams. As I watched I reminisced about all the games Patty and I were at over the years cheering on our kids and praying for them to do well. Those were good year’s.

Sunday mornings at 10:15 am through 11:15 am I will be teaching a parenting class. I used to teach parenting classes telling Mom’s and Dad’s to do what we did and I would tell stories about our family. Now I teach about what I wished I had done better, the things I should have done, and said but didn’t.

We did some things right, and one of them was I was obsessed with being the best parent I could be so I was always going to seminars, and classes on parenting, getting counsel from people who had even a little bit of success as parents, and reading books on parenting, lots of books.

I hope lots of parents come to my class for the same reason I went to classes 40 years ago. Parenting is an incredibly important job, and it is probably the hardest thing I have ever done So I am praying diligently that God will use my class to give wisdom and take away pressure.