Today my oldest turns seventeen. They say blink and it happens. The last seventeen years have felt…about like seventeen years. It has not felt fast. Not at all. It has felt long and full. That’s not a bad thing. I’m just saying I didn’t blink and suddenly celebrate a huge person turning seventeen. I put in countless sleepless nights, changed countless diapers, made countless meals, taught countless basic facts, drove to countless karate lessons, intervened in countless sibling squabbles, dealt with countless emotional episodes, countless times said no, read Scripture countless times, and perhaps most importantly disciplined countless times. The person I celebrate today was shaped and formed over many, many years and did not magically appear before me when I blinked my eyes.

Parenting is hard. Relentless. But oh so potentially rewarding. I never could have imagined the joy I am experiencing today. From the beginning of my parenting days, I anticipated the day my children would be grown. I couldn’t wait to see who they would become. Today I stand within view of the finish line in a sense. And I must say, the view is more breathtaking than I could have imagined. Pour your life into your children. Refuse to be lazy. Incessantly, diligently do the little things. Day after day after day. Year after year after year.

The hardest part I think is to diligently discipline. I am not referring to “spanking” but truly disciplining. Going against your child’s will, especially a “strong will,” year after year after year is exhausting. But we are the adult. We are the one who should possess significantly more wisdom. We are the ones who must be strong enough to love our child well enough that we do not let him go his own way.

While keeping in mind all other balancing Biblical principles, I highly recommend we heed the truth in Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.” Letting our children have their own way is significantly easier in the moment but can have devastating consequences later in life. But the reverse is also true. Making the hard call in the present can lead to priceless outcomes in the future. Recently, my son has thanked me on several occasions for certain parenting choices I made in the past. They were choices that went against what my child naturally would have chosen or wanted. To hear my son recognize their value years later and thank me is an incredibly sweet reward.

Are you a parent? Then be the parent. Your child will never ask you to stand in his way and point him in a different direction but one day he might just out of the blue thank you that you did.

Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” As I parent additional children, the temptation to grow weary in the day to day is still very real. Pausing and reflecting on my firstborn’s seventeenth birthday is strengthening me to stay in the game. So, one day at a time, I press on doing a job that is harder yet more rewarding than I ever could have imagined. I’d encourage you to do the same.