Parenting in the Fabric of Faithfulness

The following is taken from the beginning of the forthcoming book, Living in the Fabric of Faithfulness, by Julia Stronks and Gloria Stronks.

In the hills north of Spokane, Washington, where we live, there are many days when the air is very still and there is no wind at all. If it snows on such a day, the snow comes straight down, gathering on the branches of the tall ponderosa pines. The tall pines do not sway and bend but now and then they break and from the freshly broken branches comes the wonderful smell of the forest. People tend to use the wood of these lovely trees when appearance rather than strength is important. Yet the cone of the ponderosa is large, sturdy, able to stand upright and is useful for many functions.

Walking among those pines one cannot help but be aware that the newness is always there among the old. It is as though God were playing a mystical hide-and-seek with us. Just when we think we know all there is to know about the forest, a new surprise is before us.

Parenting is something like that. We hold our newborn child and marvel at the newness that is repeated over and over with each birth. One would think it would get old because birth has happened since the beginning of time. People having raised children since the beginning of humankind, one would think we would get it right by now. But just when we think we are coming along very nicely with raising our children, they surprise us with something new and different.

We want to begin this book by telling you that we believe one of the most important things either of us has ever done has been to raise our children. We did not do it perfectly. At times we did not even do it very well. But through God’s goodness and grace, our children have become lovely, caring human beings with a strong understanding that being a follower of Jesus Christ is not a private affair. It always involves others.

Julia: The hardest part about raising children is that you never get to practice beforehand. You don’t get to have one made out of paper, to be thrown away when mistakes are made.

Gloria: One can find countless books about caring for newborn babies and parenting them through each stage of their lives. But little has been written concerning how parents can help children learn to care about things that matter…that are truly worth caring about.

And then, almost before we know it, our children are grown and off to university. Our greatest hope is that they will not only remain faithful to the basic beliefs they have learned from us but that those beliefs will find expression in they way they live and the things they do throughout the rest of their lives.