Who's responsible for all this?

Sitting in a doctor's office I noticed this sign over the puzzle table,

"Parents are responsible for their children." 

Yep.  That's what you hear.  Parents are responsible for their children's behavior.  Parents are accountable.  Badly behaved kid, parents must be bad.  Everyone knows that. 


But, consider for a moment if the sign had read, "God is responsible for his children."  Responsible for what?  How we turn out?  I believe we could compile a list that would include these "responsiblilities".  He is responsible to love us, guide us, give us rules to protect us, provide learning opportunities for us, help us, offer us forgiveness, listen to us, be for us what he expects us to become, reward us when we get it right, and never, ever give up on us.  He is the perfect parent and shows us just what we are responsible to do.


So, if your child embarrasses you in the store, at church, in front of your home teachers, at school (all the stages they love to perform on!) don't despair.  I'm sure that we embarrass God regularly and he still has hope for us!