The Inspire Parenting Conference is coming on February 26-27, 2010!  It will include many awesome and refreshing thoughts for parents, one of them being our keynote speaker, Ray Johnston.  About a year ago, I heard Ray speak and he told a story that may give you a little perspective today...

A woman and her husband bought a new house.  Within their first couple of weeks in the home, the husband was looking out the kitchen window, which faced the neighbor's backyard.  He noticed that there were a bunch of clothes hanging on the clothesline.  He wondered to himself why they were so dirty.  A few days later, he was staring out the window again and he saw that there was a new batch of clothes on the neighbor's line.  Again, the clothes were dirty.  The man thought to himself, "I thought clean clothes were supposed to be hung out to dry.  What are those people thinking?"

This continued for several weeks and the man began complaining to his wife.  "What kind of neighbors are these people?  That mess on their clothsesline is ridiculous!  They could at least put their dirty clothes somewhere else so it doesn't mess up our view."

Another day came and the man went to the window, only to see that the clothes on this day were clean.  He couldn't believe it!  He immediately called his wife over and asked her, "What do you think happened over there?  The clothes are clean today."  His wife looked at him with a grin and responded, "Nothing happened to their clothes, I just cleaned the window."

Does your perspective on life change when there is "dirt on the window?"  This "dirt" could be a job loss, family emergency or just a bad day where we didn't get our morning coffee (you should see my father-in-law!).  Whatever these situations are, they can easily cloud our vision.  This is where trusting God is the absolute key.  His window never gets dirty, so He can see that "the clothes are clean" when we can't.  He also can help us clean our window and get our perspective straightened out.

Psalm 1:6- "The Lord knows the way of the righteous."  We all have tough, difficult, weird, negative and strange circumstances in our lives.  However, with our trust in the Lord we should be able to see past those things and realize that He has good things in store for us and our family.  Knowing this can make our days brighter, our perspective more positive and our windows cleaner.

A friend and I have had a few interesting conversations lately about when we were growing up…you know, way back in the 80’s?

When I was a wee-young lad, I was raised in what I thought was a pretty strict home. My parents were very conservative when it came to where I went, which movies I watched and the friends I spent time with. It was the same for my friend.

I recall being a little guy when “Terminator 2” came out. Do you remember what a hoo-rah that was??? It was one of the first films to cross the $100-million mark in production costs. Governor Arnold was the man at that time and the bad guy even got melted into liquid metallic drops, then put back together!

I couldn’t wait to see this flick! However, one small problem…my parents said “No way.” I told them that they were unfair, unjust and they simply didn’t understand. After all, “ALL” of my friends were seeing it and I was the ONLY kid in THE WORLD who wasn’t being allowed to see it. Their response? “We’re not everyone else’s parents, we’re your parents and the answer is no.”

This situation played out often in my home. Many kids from school were permitted to do all the things I wasn’t- movies, going places alone, spending the night wherever they felt like it. I sometimes felt like was left out of having the fun “everyone else” was having.

Now, my friend and I are a bit older and we are incredibly grateful to our parents for the way they protected us. I shudder to think of all the images that would have been placed into my mind had my parents let me choose my own movies when I was a kid. It’s frightening to consider the results of me (at 10-years old) picking all the friends I thought were cool and staying the night at their homes regularly. It could and would have been a disaster.

I don’t write these thoughts because I think people actually care about my life as a pre-teen. I write this because I know how disheartening and discouraging it can be for parents when they are standing for what is right. The pressure is enormous when your child wants you to believe that you are unfair. It’s tough when you look around and see “everyone else” doing something that you don’t want your kid doing. You want your child to be happy, but you want to raise them properly at the same time.

Prov. 22:6- “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Be encouraged parents- YOU are the parents! Society doesn’t make our parenting choices for us. Neither does popular opinion or the actions of others. The Lord has made each of us responsible for the living gifts He has given us. When we understand this, we see clearly that it is our job to make choices that are best for our kids, even if those choices make them upset or hurt another person’s feelings. If we are faithful with this principle, we can trust that our kids will be similar to me in that they will grow into thankful adults who understand how great of a caring and protecting parent you were!