Our Kids Are Not Our Do-Overs

Your teen is not your “do over.” I was once at a high school football game where a father in the stands was screaming and yelling at his son out on the field. About halfway through the game, another man in the stands turned around and said, “Hey Bill, you’d think that was you out there on that field!” It took a split-second for Bill to heartily yell back his answer: “It is!” Too bad for Bill’s poor son. Bill should have named his son “Mulligan.” In today’s achievement-oriented and status-conscious world, we can allow ourselves to feel like we don’t measure up now, nor did we measure up when we were teens. Hoping to improve our own status and somehow redeem the perceived “failures” and regrets of our own adolescent years, we attempt to relive our past lives through our kids. Hoping to improve our status and look good to our friends and neighbors, we attempt to live our present lives through our kids. Parents, you need to find your identity in Jesus Christ, rather than in your kids.