Balloon Animals and Green Mushrooms

I talked to a Youth Pastor friend of mine yesterday, Jeff Bachman, who told me that having kids is like playing a video game, something like Megaman or Halo, or anything in between those two. What happens is you start out on the first level, and you are adjusting to the game, you are learning where the Flying Leaves are hidden and where the secret tunnels are and you eventually beat the boss on the first level, you breath a sigh of relief and then continue on to level two. About 5 seconds into the second level you realize you again are in over your head and that this level is way more difficult than the first, the turtles fly on this level.


But because failure isn't an option, you keep playing(for two reasons, 1. I'm a man and I'm not allowed to, and 2. the levels in this story are metaphors for children... I can't just power off my child when I get frustrated, or throw a Wii remote at him.)
You make the necessary adjustments and you eventually beat level two.

One afternoon player 2 (Your spouse) decides she is going to take level 2 out on a shopping trip with Atari (Her mom, that wasn't an old joke Susan, just a generational one) leaving you to play level 1 all over again. Except this time you have mastered level 2, so level one is seemingly easy, its fun, it's right up there with hop-scotch and balloon animals, it almost seems silly that you once thought this was difficult or frustrating at times.
I know I haven't raised my son yet, the best I have done thus far is teach him that dogs are fun but you shouldn't try to ride them. But I do know that with each proceeding level I am sure it becomes harder and harder to stay engaged in each of your students lives.

I talked to a dad yesterday who was open and honest about the love and concern he has for his kids, he told me that they come and pray with him regularly, that he reads scripture and scripture inspired books with them, and I could tell he genuinely wanted more than anything else for his students to love the Lord.

(<----- Level 2)

Thats where I want my relationship with my kids to be, thats where I want the comfort level of Cooper and I to land, thats where I want my focus to be, on building a relationship with Cooper that points him straight towards the Lord. And that is what my hope would be for all of the parents and guardians involved in our youth ministry as well, that the main focus in raising their children would be showing them the love of Christ and the sacrifice he made for all of us.

I am sure level 2 is harder than level 1, and I don't even want to think about level 3, but regardless of how far into the game we get, we need to remember that passing the level should mean raising up our children to love the Lord, and all others things will fall into place.