One day this past week as I was reading a post on parenting, this quote really was impressed upon my heart.

What I will do is share the response to that post.

“I have had a few long conversations with my grown children and they shared memories of moments where I overacted or misunderstood something. I was grateful for the opportunity to apologize so our relationship can move forward and they don’t have to carry those hurts. There is no place for pride in parenting. We need to be real and we need to be good at listening to the hearts of our children.” - Andrew n’ Rachel

One of my biggest desires is that our children will come to us if there is something from our past that they need to discuss.

In a healing journey such as ours, there will be topics that need to be brought into the light. Can we be completely open to hearing these thoughts and not become prideful or overact? When our children come to us, and it takes courage to do so, we need to be quiet. As they share their hearts, we need to hear. This is not a time to become defensive, deflect blame and tell them how it should be.

Their perspective is their reality.

I do not believe that it is because we are bad parents, they are coming to make us better parents. And, as better parents, we can apologize, ask for forgiveness, and repair the relationship.

You may ask “Anita, how would you know?”

I have had to listen to many conversations within our family to know. There is nothing more important than hearing the hearts of my family, staying humble, and apologizing where necessary. My grown children need to know that they are safe with us at all times. In doing this, I believe they will do the same with their children.

Ministry starts within our homes.

We can do this together.