Patty and I had eight children and now we have 28 grandchildren and I am thinking that we will have 100 great grandchildren if we live long enough to see them all.

Each one of them grew steadily from birth. We have some differences in height and weight but still each one is pretty much “normal” as they have progressed through the various stages of life.

Being potty trained was a great milestone for each, talking was a sort of drug out milestone, especially for some who were a bit slower picking that up. The same with walking, some took off early and fast and others seemed to like crawling so they stayed there for a while.

The kids each progressed through the grades in school and then went to College, got married, started a career, had kids, our grandkids, of their own.

The greatest growth that they all had was in their character. Patty and I parented with a character-growth mindset. We wanted them to grow in kindness, diligence, patience, resourcefulness, humility, self-control, and others so we figured out how to stimulate character growth in each one as unique individuals.

The thing about our kids was that each one of them had a will of their own and as they got older their own choices, priorities, and values came into play in their character growth. We were blessed in that none of them was a major rebel or hard-hearted.

God’s will and plan for each of our lives is that we would grow to the point of understanding the truth of the gospel, become born-again children of God and then for the rest of our lives to grow steadily in character until we become like Jesus.

Even though that is what God wants, and He does everything that He can do in our circumstances to move us toward maturity, there is still that issue of people making right choices, having right priorities, and holding godly values. Some do and many don’t.

The key, I believe, as I press on every day to become more and more like my Savior, is to be submissive to God. It is a battle because we want to run our own lives, make our own decisions and decide for ourselves what is right and wrong. Every morning I declare Jesus to be Lord of my life and I commit my life to following and obeying Him. I do it daily because I easily slip back to me steering the ship.

When I step into heaven I want to be just exactly like Jesus in character so that I can enjoy Him and He can enjoy me for all eternity.