There is a style of parenting that is popular right now called helicopter parenting. Helicopter parents want to be a part of everything their children are doing and they are very protective of their children and willing to intervene if they think their children aren’t being treated the way they should be. To some extent those are good qualities, but the problem occurs when there is too much parental involvement. For example, a radio news story reported that many summer camps have established on line photo galleries of their daily activities. Parents love to see them. One parent, however, called the camp after they noticed a scratch on their child’s arm and wondered what had caused the scratch and did the camp staff take care of it the way the parents wanted. I was, and still am, an involved Mom, but this seems extreme, even to me.
Instead, let’s take a look at how the prophet Samuel’s parents, Hannah and Elkanah did things differently. No one can argue with the fact that they cherished this son who was born to them after many years of barrenness, times when they waited fervently and prayed without ceasing that they would have a son. But as devoted as they were to him, they were more devoted to God. They were spiritually mature enough to know that God had plans for their son which were different than what they had hoped for their son. I’m sure it was hard for them, but they set aside their plans and submit to God’s, which was that Samuel would serve God in the most important place where people worshipped at that time, Shiloh. They did whatever they could to help Samuel in that capacity, visiting him every year and “taking him a little robe.”
Frankly, I’m not sure if I could have done what they did. But this is exactly what we are called to do when we have our children baptized. We promise that they are God’s forever and we entrust them to God and God’s church. Even if we understand that they are God’s, not ours, we still are responsible for them, and we will always to one degree or another, think of them as ours. A man in one of the churches I pastored, described it this way. “We’re their parents, but those kids aren’t really ours. We’re just trustees.” He understood that our job as Christians is to center our lives, not on our children, but on God. Our job as parents is to help our children remember whose they are, and to support them as they become the people God wants them to be. Hannah and Elkanah are an example that can help us do that.
Rev. Dorcas Linger Conrad
St. Matthew United Methodist Church. Weston, WV
I relied heavily on Year C, Volume 4 of the commentary “Feasting on the Word” as I wrote this devotional.
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