Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 23:3 (Summer 2009)
Article: When Our Children Become Our Brothers, Sisters, and Friends in God’s Household
Author: S. Steve Kang

When Our Children Become Our Brothers, Sisters,
and Friends in God’s Household

S. Steve Kang

S. STEVE KANG (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is Professor of Educational Ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of Unveiling the Socioculturally Constructed Multivoiced Self, coauthor of A Many Colored Kingdom, and coeditor of Growing Healthy Asian American Churches. His newest work is Teaching the Faith: Forming the Faithful, coauthored with Gary Parrett (IVP, October 2009). Chris and Steve have two children, Ashley, 16, and Andrew, 14.

I often hear well-meaning parents talking about improving their parenting skills. Over the years, I have attended my share of parenting seminars and read books on the subject. Since I teach educational ministry courses at a seminary, numerous churches have assumed that I know something about parenting and have asked me to speak on parenting at their churches. I, too, have participated in the improvement of parenting skills as a Christian on both the receiving and giving ends.

The truth, however, is that I still feel like a novice at being a parent. Just as we have one life that God has graciously allowed us to live, we have one chance at being a parent to our children. Yes, we can grow and are able to observe some gradual changes throughout our lifetime, but once the life patterns set in during the early years of our lives with the help (and detriment!) of those around us, it is difficult to have any meaningful do-overs with certain aspects of life. As Augustine laments, in each moment of time we know that the past is already non-existent and the future is beyond our reach. The present, if I pause to reflect upon it, is already past. We can only extend into the past through memory and the future through anticipation. I suppose we can achieve a sort of enduring presence by the power of our attention, as if carrying a melody. It is no small wonder why Augustine referred to time as a distending of the soul, distention animi, through which human beings can vaguely begin to intuit the divine eternity.1

The same is true for our children. Each child has one chance of going through each stage of her life just as the parent has one chance at being there for her. Being a parent, therefore, is a calling. Parenting is not just something we do for our children out of obligation, necessity, or expectation, but what we are called to be by the gracious invitation of the triune God. As Christians, we are God’s children, which obviously denotes that God is our parent. We are adopted into his family through the atoning death of Jesus Christ to live as his household. As a perfect Parent, God has loved us with an everlasting love and drawn us in with lovingkindness (You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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