| A letter from Gary & Anne Marie - A Word of Encouragement |
| Dear
Parent, Oh, the joys of parenthood. Our children delight us with their laughter and humour, surprise us with their imaginations, and amaze us with their perception. Through their growing sense of wonder, they renew Mom and Dad's sense of adventure. Through their continual dependence on our care, they make us feel important. More than that, with their tender smiles and warm hugs, they make us feel loved. Oh, the frustrations of parenthood. Our children have a knack of saying the wrong things at the wrong time in front of the wrong people. They throw our orderly world into disarray. When we plan an event weeks in advance, that is the exact day they get sick. They track in mud seemingly only after the floor is washed and stain only their new clothes, not their old. They humble us in public and make us feel like failures in private. This, too, is parenthood. There is no avoiding this truth: Parenting is (to put it gently) a challenge. Children at all ages have needs, and as they grow their needs become more complex. Naturally, as parents we want to meet as many of these needs as possible, but while striving to do so we must be careful not to attempt to meet them in our own strength. We cannot parent by our own strength and still achieve a godly outcome. If this is true, however, upon whose strength can we rely? The authors of a best-selling book? Our children's teachers? The couple next door? As helpful as these resources may be, they are not sufficient in and of themselves. If we place our confidence in our own abilities or the abilities of others, we will be too stressed out, too tense, and too anxious to enjoy the parenting process or, more tragically, our children. Moms and dads, we urge you to settle this in your mind now: You will never have perfect children. None of us will. This is true in part because there is no such thing as a perfect parent, regardless of how many resources are made available to us. However, we do have a perfect God whose grace takes up the slack of our failures. Be encouraged by the apostle Paul's words: "And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). This verse is true for all of us, even moms and dads. If we remain faithfully obedient to our parental duties and take seriously the calling to bring up our children in the nurture and admonishment of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), we can be confident that God will use us in our weakness to bring forth His fruit in His time. More than anything else we will share with you in these pages, this one truth supersedes them all: With the grace of God on your side, you can enjoy your children now-and forever. While we are confident that the GFI resources can be of help to parents, our resources are not intended to give all the answers or provide the reader with all he or she will ever need to know about the process of raising a child. Therefore, parents guided by their own convictions have the ultimate responsibility and duty to research parenting philosophies available today and then make an informed decision as to what is best for their family. Growing Families International is just one resource out of many available to guide parents along the way. The tools of our endeavour include prayer, observation, experience, personal study, common wisdom, and, most importantly, the Holy Spirit. We are a husband and wife, a father and mother, co-labourers in ministry, and two observers of human nature. It is our desire that the truth presented in our resources fall somewhere between correction and challenge, enlightenment and confirmation. Thank you for considering Growing Families International as a parenting resource. May God richly bless you in your efforts to raise your family to His glory. Gary & Anne Marie Ezzo |
