My Mom and Dad.
Wow.
Where do I even start?? They are pretty much the reason my life is as good as it is! I thank God for giving them to me. They have given me my standard, my ideals. I know what kind of man I want for my kids. I know how to have humility (even if I'm not good at it, I do know how it's done). You know, I think the paper I wrote in my first quarter of college sums it up pretty good. I titled it The Best Teachers:
My life is by no means perfect; but what I have is far better than what most teenagers boast. I owe this to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who gave me a Mom and Dad who love me, take me to a Bible believing church, give me boundaries to keep me from ruining my life with my immaturity, work their tails off for my sisters and I, and are doing their very best to raise us in the admonition of the Lord. Some of the success of a student is due to the teachers and my parents are teaching me how to live.
My mom is amazing. I have not always wanted to be just like her. I still don’t want to be just like her; but if I can accomplish half of what she has, I will be a godly mother and a host ready for everything, including a social husband. I will have trials and hard times and will come out of them with experience and wisdom. I will somehow manage to raise five girls and love each equally with their different needs and faults. I will mentor and advise other younger women around me. This is what my mom does. And she keeps the house clean and meals on the table for her husband and five daughters who eat like boys. My mom is also a teacher in the literal sense. She homeschooled me for ten years, is homeschooling the next three in line, and will soon add the youngest (who is a very busy four year old) to the class room.
My dad is pretty amazing too (he and my mom make a great match). He is the assistant pastor and youth pastor at our church. This means that he does everything from filling in when the pastor is gone to planning and organizing events, making phone calls, directing the teen department and the list goes on. During hunting season, I must say he is quite perseverant. When I was still homeschooled, he would do all this and then come home and deal with a frustrating math student who insisted she could understand algebra concepts but couldn’t grasp her times tables (I’m a major blondie)!
All this is to let you know how hard working my parents are. But more importantly, my parents are the main reason that I personally know Jesus Christ. Since day one, I have been brought to church by them every Sunday and Thursday unless I was sick. I have heard Bible my whole life. The Lord blessed me with a good memory, so I have been able to absorb all of this and recall it as well as memorize scripture. When I was five, I made the most important decision of my life. I realized that I was a sinner headed for hell. I knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God who came to earth. I knew He lived a perfect, sinless life and willingly died on the cross as a payment for my sins so that I could spend eternity in the presence of God Almighty instead of burning like I deserved. My dad led me in prayer and I asked the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart. He is my ultimate teacher. And he gave me my parents and is using them to give me a huge head-start in life. I am very blessed to have this life.
As teachers, my parents have set standards for my sisters and me. They do not allow me to date and I know why. I agree with them one hundred percent. There are certain clothes we don’t wear. There is music we don’t listen to and movies we don’t watch. These are standards my parents have set up. They have motivated me to have high standards too. They are my role models. They are my example of how a husband and wife should be. I intend to be the kind of wife my mom is. And when I am considering marriage, my mom and dad must both approve of the guy before I decide to spend the rest of my life with him. They have shown me patience. Mom has stayed calm plenty of times when I would have exploded with expression of my dislike for the way one of my sisters was behaving. She keeps me in check. Dad deals with people all the time-adults and teenagers- and I can tell you he is a patient man. They both have lots of patience with me whenever I give them a hard time.
Most importantly, my parents are teaching me to have a strong relationship with God and just how important that is. For as long as I can remember, whenever I get up and everyone else is still in bed, Dad is on the couch reading his Bible, or on his knees praying. This is an amazing testimony, and I hope my kids will see the same thing. At our house, school work has to be done before play-time. Church homework is right up there with math and spelling. When we go on vacation, choosing the location is influenced by what church we want to visit on the Sundays we will be gone from our home church. If there is an event going on at the same time as a church service, we don’t go. In fact, most of the fun events we go to are connected with church. This is not to say that anything not connected with church is evil, but it makes a statement about our priorities. My parents were considering letting me join the track team at a high school, but decided against it because I would miss church during a lot of the meets. All this shows my sisters and me how God should always be number one in our lives.
Thankyou SO MUCH, LORD, for my Mom and Dad. I don't deserve them.
Be thankful!!
Sarah
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