When you come to the end of a day, do you ever wonder why you bothered to get up?  Nothing seems to go right.  If you’re a parent with young children, you are inundated with little people’s needs throughout the day.  You are on a constant mission to keep order in the house – food on the table or in the dish, for that matter.  You are battling  to lay down rules that have no apparent interest from the kiddos – who at this age could care less.

If you’re raising teenagers, you’re undoubtedly waiting for them to grow up and become independent, but are on the go most of the time carting them to various activities until they learn to drive – then you worry about how you will afford insurance and another vehicle, not to mention letting your child get into a possible weapon of mass destruction and take the wheel.

When your children are grown and gone, you wish you were still involved in their lives like you used to be, but are relieved not to have to wait up for them to get home at night or be available at their beckon call

When they begin to have families of their own, you begin to ache for the things they’re going through, remembering how tough it was.  In my opinion, child rearing is God’s way of preparing us for old age.  As we age, we become more dependent – like young children – we require more attention – our health becomes an every minute of our lives concern – we often lose memory, senses, common sense and, left to our own devices, we make many of the same mistakes we did as children.

For the average parents, parenting is more of a learn as you go process.  There is no manual which fits every child and every situation and the same is also true for us old fogeys.  So, in effect, life is a learn as you go process.  We make the same dumb mistakes we did before.  We face the same problems we did as teenager trying to discover our purpose.  We struggle with decisions which could effect the rest of our lives.

The truth is, we’re all in the same boat.  Ever since sin came into a perfect world, we’ve been faced with a common dilemma.  Life isn’t easy and it won’t be until we die and go to paradise where there will be no more dirty diapers, oatmeal on the wall, or difficulty hearing or seeing.  I’m talking about young and old here.

There is a manual for living through these times that applies to each and every inhabitant of the earth – past, present and future.  Its called the Bible and promises to have a solution to every difficulty we face in this life.  Dust it off, open it and read it.  It will give you the perfect plan for your life and the assurance of eternity in paradise.