The Family Circle by Linden Malki

"God so loved the world that He gave His Son..." 
This is one of the most recognized verses in Scripture, and it says a surprising amount when we really look at it.  First, God didn't just put a world together and walk away. There is something He did that is foundational to our world: He loves it, which indicates that He loves us. The love of a Father is one of the most basic, and yet one of the most difficult things for us to deal with. What do we actually know about Him?  That He is One God, and He wants to have a special relationship with us. We are not allowed to make any representation of Him; we are to be very careful as to what we do in His Name, and we owe Him a day of worship and attention. 

He has given us something else: we are to live in families; with fathers and mothers who are to be honored. We are brought into this world by parents, who at best are representatives of God. Parenting is not easy; we are all separate indivuals but have characteristics and obligations that make each family similar but separate. The love within a family is supposed to be based on the Love of God, but every family is both alike and different. Parents are responsible for their children, but children are also supposed to honor their parents.  Parents are only given their children for part of their lives, and they are to teach them who God is and what their responsibility to Him really is.

It can be tempting to let our lives rotate around the our children, and don't allow any "bad things" to get in the way. We live in a world that isn't all sweetness and light, and if we look at how God deals with us, we realize that we learn how to deal with tough stuff the hard way. God provides challenges, the world has its own share of tests, and we are supposed to grow up and know what to do  when life throws curve balls. I spent an amazing summer at one point in my life learning that when St Paul tells the Romans that "all things work together for good" doesn't say anything about what those "things" really are, and finally recognized that some of those things weren't necessarily about me, but there were good reasons for the way things finally worked out. In the Gospels, we see Peter try to walk on water, but sank when he took his eyes off of Jesus.  Jesus allowed Peter to get into some tough spots, because he needed to learn to deal with the stuff we're put on a complicated world to handle.