The Special Six
If you know anything about Jason & I, everything we do is for our kids. Jason calls us the Special Six. From the beginning of our marriage, we have always known that having kids was our top priority. We also had conversation after conversation about what that would look like, how we would raise our kids, and our goals as a family. Many of those conversations came from our own experiences, both good and bad; how we would do things similar to our childhood and how we would do things differently. I think every parent could agree they have had similar thoughts and conversations.
Wanting to do things differently than how we were raised or than the experiences we had as a child isn’t always a knock to our parents or families. Looking back over the generations it seems every generation of parents change how they parent based on their experiences, trying to do more or do better than what they experienced. If we look back at our parents’ experience we can see that they were parenting in a way that was to their own capacity. Often as parents we are growing up at the same time as we are learning to be parents.
Over the years we have made many parenting decisions that not everyone understands or agrees with. We have and continue to make good decisions and bad decisions as parents. As we have grown as adults, husband and wife, and as Christians our parenting style and decisions have also grown. We are always open and honest with our kids. We often tell them that we are far from the perfect parents and that while we are trying our best to do right by them. One day they too will look back and see things we did as parents and want to do things differently with their own children. We hope they do. We hope they continue to do better and give their own children more (emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and financially) than we can imagine.
I was recently listening to a podcast that was talking about a book, that I need to order and read! The book talks about how our decisions as parents can have such an impact on not only our children but every generation to come. Specifically, the authors were speaking about how if you have four children by the time your family gets to their tenth generation you could have around 55,000 descendants. So I sent a text to Jason and jokingly yet seriously said hey we could impact this not just 4 kids but possibly 55,000, so you know no pressure or anything! But doesn’t that just put your role as parents into perspective of just how important it truly is? Not only how we can impact our future generations in this life but also how we can impact their relationship with the Lord and their faith in general.
While we are always making mistakes as parents we are also learning and growing. Our goals as parents are to raise children who are spiritually, mentally, emotionally, relationally, and physically healthy. We pray that they desire to have a relationship with God, that they will continually grow in their faith, and that they will make Jesus the most important relationship they have. We pray that they become successful in whatever career aligns with God’s will for their lives. We pray that they continue to have a close and loving relationship with us as their parents and with their siblings. We pray that they find the spouse God has for them so they too can enjoy a long and healthy marriage. We pray that if they have children they create an amazing and healthy relationship with them. We pray that they will continue to build a legacy for our family that reflects the Gospel to others generations after generations. We pray that they understand every decision we made as parents was for them to never walk away from their relationship with God and to have a childhood they don’t have to heal from. We pray that our tenth generation can feel the effects of the effort we put into the Special Six.
