Author: Justin D Hemming

The last few weeks have been rough weather wise which translates to a rough time mental wise for myself and many others.  2 weeks of too cold to get outside with my kids left all of us with a bad case of cabin fever.  Followed by a week full of nonstop rain for 3 days straight and we’re all about to lose it.  Yesterday, however, was a very good day.  It was still gray and dreary out but it at least wasn’t raining.

Infinitely more importantly was the question my son posed to me on the way to replace a frisbee we had thrown into the drainage pipe so perfectly that it’s exactly halfway from either side and therefore unreachable even with a long pole.  As we’re driving to the dollar store, he catches me off guard by asking me, out of nowhere, “Daddy, why did God make me?”

Nearly all the time I wonder if what we’re teaching out kids at home is making any impact whatsoever.  I’ve started implementing a nightly prayer with my two kiddos as well as a mantra but most days I feel more like I’m throwing pasta at the wall and hoping something spiritual sticks.  I try and read them a kid’s Bible once or twice a week and we take them to church almost every week they’re open and we’re home.  Still, I wonder.  I try and be very intentional about my kid’s spiritual formation by doing that as well as praying with my wife nightly for help with our parenting as God parents us.

And then, there’s reality that hits hard every day.  My 5 year old son whines way more than my 3 year old daughter.  Then I whine to others about him whining and wonder where he gets it  😉  It can grate on our nerves so much I feel like I’m going to come unglued some days.  

Yet somehow, God continues to show me mercy and meet me in my impatience with my kids to mature.  My son asks me why God made him and I’m floored at my 5 year old asking a millennia old question.  Whoa, this is the type of question people get philosophy degrees trying to figure out.  A secular version is, “Why am I here?” but the premise is the same.  We all want to have a purpose in our lives.  Something we can point to at any given time and say, “That’s why I’m here.  That’s why this life is meaningful.”

My response was simple enough that a 5 year old could understand it but I think it might apply to anyone looking to answer this question.  “God made you so you could serve Him and serve others,”  I started out as saying.  I went on to explain that serving others means helping others, like how he helps his little sister.  I shared how I believe God made him for a life of helping others somehow, and that it was going to be a joy to get to see how God reveals that to him over time.  I talked about how we’re built to love God and love others.

In less than a minute, I went from feeling beyond frustrated by some whining to being humbled by God’s mercy to raise children and try to point them to Him.  God saw fit to put Stef and me in charge of the upbringing of two precious souls.  Very rarely do we feel we ‘meet the mark’ in terms of being the parents they deserve, but if God called us to it then He will help us as we try and point them to Him.  

When our 5 year old son was born in Spain, one of our church pastors said God was simply allowing us to borrow our son for such a short time in the grand scheme of eternity.  That’s always stuck with me.  When the days are long I remember Pablo saying God simply lends His kids to us for us to watch over and care for them for such a short time and it often helps me get through another day.

And when my son floors me by some deep question, I praise God for the privilege of trying to raise two beautiful children in the way of Jesus.