Parenting: Getting It RightSample

DEVOTIONAL

The North Star has been used by seafaring captains and other travelers for thousands of years. It’s a star that shines so bright most people can see it with the naked eye. It also maintains a relatively stable position in the northern sky, which is what has made it so useful for navigation. “North Star” has since come to mean a stable, guiding light. An end goal. A finish line.

Today’s Scripture reading includes two North Stars, so to speak. We read that as the Israelites fled from the Egyptians, God appeared as a cloud of smoke to follow by day and a pillar of fire to follow at night. Just think about that for a minute. God, the vast creator of stars—someone powerful enough to create millions of massive, luminous spheres of energy that burn for thousands of years in deep space—is also just up ahead. He was so full of compassion that he led a ragtag, idolatrous, often complaining people away from harm.

In your life as a parent, there will undoubtedly be times when you feel like you’ve lost your North Star. Trials with your kids will make it feel like God has left you wandering in the desert alone. It’s easy to become disheartened when it feels like God doesn’t show up. No one will blame you for that. Everyone feels lost during seasons of suffering or trial.

But today’s passage reminds us that we are people of the North Star—people who will find their way when we have a guiding light to focus on. Today’s passage also reveals that God himself is a North Star, and that he loves us enough to compassionately lead us into a better tomorrow.

Your first, best step as a parent is to maintain sight of the North Star in your spiritual life. God will remain a stable guide for you even during the hardest seasons. Following God will in turn equip you to develop a North Star for your family to follow, too. No matter how far out into the desert you or your children may wander, God is ever before you, ready to lead you home.

REFLECTION

What do you think of the Stanley’s North Star, their it? “Kids who enjoy being with us, and with each other, when they no longer have to be.”

What are your goals for parenting? Write down a few ideas if you haven’t already identified specific goals.

How is your understanding of God affected by the knowledge that he became a “North Star” for the ancient Israelites?

PRAYER

Dear God, thank you for your deep compassion over obstinate and misguided people like the ancient Israelites and me. In all your vast, star-making power, thank you for loving me and my family personally. I recommit to following you today as my North Star, and pray that you will guide me in my parenting. Amen.