A Parent's Joy

Necessity warrants that I remove my pastor’s hat for a moment and put on the hat of father. Necessity, because if I don’t say something to as many people as I can reach I think I’ll burst from an overwhelming sense of joy and pride in my children as well as an overwhelming sense of gratitude to God for what He’s been accomplishing in my kid’s lives! But let me back up a little by sharing a concern that Tonya and I had just over six years ago when we first moved back to central California.

We were sure of the calling in our life to leave a church we loved and still love and miss to this day. Confirmation of our calling to come and pastor in North Fork came through multiple sources and we had the absolute assurance of that divine call. And yet, even that overwhelming assurance was met with deep concerns. To home school your children in a city in Southern California affords many opportunities for your children. Resources are readily handy and certainly that’s where you want to be to provide your kids with all the opportunity to succeed in life, right?

Moving from that kind of environment where everything is at your fingertips to a small unknown town in the mountains of Central California could really put a strain on those opportunities. And so what’s going to happen to our children?

Well, let me begin with our oldest. Kalli has blossomed into a beautiful servant of Christ. She is a diligent and conscientious worker who looks out for others and has a deep concern for the lost. Her mother and I are bursting with pride in her accomplishments. As a student at Bible College she has arrived at her final semester and as we look back we realize that it was her own efforts that got her there. We could never afford to send any of our kids off like this and yet through her diligence and hard work and trust in God she has arrived at a place in her life where we can see God doing great and awesome things through her. Those at the Bible College continue to place much responsibility on her and we see that as proof of her maturity and God given abilities. We are so proud of our Kal!

Kalli has a beautiful voice and leads worship with me when she’s home from school. I so look forward to those times that we get to sing together. Just recently she and some friends were visiting and I asked them and her sister Mallory to sing a couple of their favorite songs. It was one of the most amazing moments that I can remember ever occurring in our little church! I was beaming with pride and was the first to break out in applause.

Kalli is a very gifted writer and I sense that God will be using that gift for His glory in her future as well. Recently, Tonya read a paper that she wrote to a group of Ladies in our church. This was a paper about her deep relationship with her heavenly Father and how she sees her worth as being in Him. At the reading of the final line there wasn’t a dry eye in the room, including my own. I was bursting with pride on that day!

Mallory is our second child. She too has matured to a spiritual level that is beyond what we feel we could have expected given our own feeble attempts to be good parents. Mallory has a sensitivity to the Spirit and His leading. She desires more of God and is always aware of her need to be more obedient.

Currently, Mallory is serving in our youth ministry with her Christian rock band, “Heroes Down”. They’ve held a couple of concerts so far and are responsible for leading the worship at youth group on Thursday nights. Though she has already graduated from high school and will miss most of her brother’s Thursday night football games she still chooses to serve what she sees as a vital ministry in our church. And when I listen to her sing for the Lord... Again, I’m bursting with pride!

Mallory is also a very gifted artist! Art show after art show we attend with the same results, a number of blue ribbons and best of shows and people’s choice awards. Recently we attended the Mariposa Fair where Mallory had several of her works on display. As we walked into the art building, we were floored by the results. Displayed with so many ribbons that you couldn’t even see the drawing was one of her best works yet. As I stood there doing everything I could to make sure the strangers around me would know that this masterpiece belonged to my daughter, I was bursting with pride!

Miles is next, a sensitive, kind and obedient son who has no fear of talking to others about Christ. Over the years it was common to hear of discussions that he had with one of his team mates that began with Miles asking the question, “are you a Christian”. Miles continues to grow and mature in a way that really blesses his mother and I.

Miles is a gifted athlete and for many years now has excelled in baseball but because we home school, the opportunities for baseball was to literally come to an end after his last year of Babe Ruth. But again, just as God provided free music lessons for Kalli and free art lessons for Mallory. Something even more astounding happened for Miles.

For over twenty years the people in our community and surrounding communities had been trying to build a public high school. Those efforts came to fruition the year before Miles last year of Babe Ruth was to be played. We never thought anything about it because we home school and from all that we had learned, homeschoolers are not typically allowed to play public high school sports but that was about to change!

A phone call to the athletic director of Minarets High School about an entirely different topic lead to a discussion about Miles and his abilities on the field. This brand new school was at the stage of wanting to begin a sports program but they would need athletes. The director told me to give him a couple of days and he’d see what he could do. The next day I received a call from the baseball coach telling me he would be happy to let Miles play!

Miles had one of the best seasons ever on a team that did fairly well for a fist year. His mother and I were beaming with pride. With every good play and every good hit we stood amazed at God’s sovereign grace in our lives! But it doesn’t end there. Minarets High School wasn’t even considering football for at least another two to three years which would mean Miles would miss out on that. But because the rapidly growing student body wanted a football team they were able to pull it together and Miles has been welcomed to play there as well.

His first game was just last week and on a roster of forty players Miles started on offense and defense and was named the MVP on defense with three quarterback sacks and several assists. His mother and I were beaming, no, exploding with pride!

Then comes Joshua! Joshua opens yet another chapter in our life. It is an exciting yet challenging chapter for two aging parents. But the joy that he brings in addition to all the joy from our older kids is very welcome.

Joshua’s story is also a testimony of God’s sovereign grace in our lives. Not really intending to adopt children we fell in love with this little Filipino boy who was in our care through Foster parenting. I’m sure that as a whole the state adoption system is an excellent system seeking to provide good, loving homes for the many children in our state needing a home. But in Joshua’s situation we found ourselves fighting against certain personalities who didn’t seem to think we would be fit as his parents. At one point they had decided to take him from us and place him with a single woman who had no kids. We sought help and advice from everyone we could find and yet in the end we can look back and see that it was God’s plan for Joshua to be a Miller and today we beam with pride as we watch our little 2 ½ year old interact with people everywhere we go. We beam with pride with every new word he learns and every time he actually makes it to the toilet in time! He’s (using Kalli’s language) so stinking cute that people are just drawn to him and when they make a big deal about him we just cant help but be proud and grateful that God is allowing us to raise him.

Joshua is a challenge but there were many challenges that we faced with Kalli, Mallory and Miles as well. With God’s grace and mercy in our lives we’ve seen those challenges become joy. We've seen how, even in a little unknown town in the mountains God is the One who provides the opportunities for our kids to grow and learn and experience. And that’s what we anticipate with Josh as well.

At this point of our life as parents some might want to think of us as successful and might even ask us what our secret is. Don’t ask us! We are overwhelmed by how our children are turning out. We are blessed beyond all measure and right now we are floating on a cloud. But we realize that it’s what God is doing in and through the life of our family and we don’t deserve it.