Directions

I’ve learned a few things over the years. Things that don’t show up on any checklist, and certainly not in any operations manual.

You can teach your children. And, no matter what you do or say, you will teach them.

You will show them how to live, how to decide, how to act, what to say in many situations.

You can repeat yourself—sometimes more than you planned to, and sometimes more than they wanted to hear. (And yes, they did hear you every time, even after they perfected the fine art of selective listening.)

You can model patience.You can demonstrate kindness, gentleness, unfailing love.

And throw in some wisdom when the moment opens the door just enough to let it in.

But after all is said and done, each human will live their own unique life.

They will make their own plans. They will follow roads you didn’t map out. They will choose paths that make you proud, and, at times, paths that make you pray a little harder—and maybe a little FASTER. Yes, just like you did.

And somewhere in that holy tension between guidance and release, a quiet truth settles in:

Your job, parent, was never to control their lives. It was to influence their direction.

Because in every step they take—whether steady or uncertain, your imprint goes with them.

Not just what you taught, but how you taught it.

The tone in your voice. The patience, or lack of it. Remember to forgive yourself, we’re all still under construction... like metropolitan Atlanta highways. Lanes blocked everywhere with rubber cones, flashing lights, and ongoing frustration day and night.

Your children will mimic the way you handled pressure. The way they saw you treat other people when no one else was watching. The way you loved them on their best days and especially on their worst. Will they remember the laughter?

These are some of the things that stay.

Long after the lectures fade, long after the curfews are forgotten, long after they insist they've “figured it all out on their own” (and you quietly smile, because you know better),

your life becomes a compass they carry within them.

And here’s the grace in it: God never asked you to produce perfect children. He asked you to faithfully point them.

“Point your children in the right direction. When they’re old they won’t be lost.“ Wise words from Solomon, inspired by God, practiced (no doubt) by his mom and dad.

So you point. You guide. You pray. It's the most challenging job you'll ever deeply love.

And then, from beginning to end, you trust the One who loves them even more than you do.

I hope.

Because in the end, the goal was never to keep them under your control, but to send them forward with something of heaven stitched into their hearts.

___________________ A parent's quiet prayer:

Lord, help me to teach with patience, to lead with humility, and to love without condition.

Let my life speak louder than my words, may whatever I leave behind in them be shaped by Your Truth, and Your Grace. And when I'm tempted to worry about every step they take, remind me of this one truth:

You’re already there. Amen.

Copyright 2025; Revised August 2026; Gary Landerfelt; mypericope.com

(MSG)