The good thing is...

Children are a gift, God says. The 127th psalm goes so far as to call a passle of yard-apes a 'full quiver'. As in that bag that hangs on Legolas's back where he keeps his arrows. I have to agree, like arrows, children dangerous when if played with incautiously. And, they have a point. (Children, I mean. Not the Psalmist. Well, he had a point too. But...nevermind....)

The point of children is manifold. Childhood is a transition from birth to adulthood. No mother I know woud ever agree to give birth to an adult-sized baby. Also, children are especially pliable and open to learning in ways that adults are not. They absorb daily what they need to become healthy, well-adjusted adults. Hopefully.

But kids provide one valuable service that, recognized or not, God no doubt intended. They give us one of the most complete pictures we have of out relationship with Him. Children rival the Bible itself in teaching us about God. And, I'm not just talking about those times when we look to heaven in utter frustration and pray the five or six words we can remember of that Serenity prayer before we're interrupted. Again.

Children are born sinful, but ingnorant of it. No one thinks a baby is selfish or demanding for it's behavior. But a baby cannot have a real friendship either. It has to grow, to mature. Children behave outwardly exactly how we behave inwardly. As Christians, we are trying to learn a better way, but it is God who is teaching us. As kids grow, they pass through stages of concrete thought into the abstract We see how we are being lifted up out a world made only of what we can see and touch into spiritual world that's just as real with rules and consequences of its own.

Pay attention. This metaphor applies to every part of your relationship with God. What do you want for your children? How do you want them to talk to you? How comfortable should they feel at home, the home you provide for them? What do you fear for them? Hope for them?

Smart parents teach their kids cool stuff. Wise parents learn cool stuff from their kids.