On my Facebook I have an ongoing message with my wife and children, called “Family Is Best!” (It is here we share with one another daily things, prayer requests, great things and little things.) There is no doubt in my mind in the truth of that statement. I have weathered enough storms and circumstances in 58 years to know.

I am the child of divorced parents and divorced twice myself, but I still have no thought in my mind that anything is better than family. Family is God given, God designed.

Last weekend we began what is a new “family tradition” of opening our house on the first of the month to our children and their children after church. We decided to keep it simple. Soup, sandwiches and drinks. And hanging out.

I am blessed. My five children are regularly here in my sight or a phone call away. I see most of them weekly. I recognize the true blessing that is when so many of my peers have children that live across the nation or do not stay in contact.

Parents, we have a real job to do. The first thing is probably determine who they are and guide them into that. Part of that I believe is helping them grow a relationship with the Father. Introducing them to Jesus not as a set of rules or regulations but as a person they can count on and relate to.

I am convinced children do not need more toys or bigger houses or designer clothes but the loving care of mom and dad. I am not against those things but when those things supersede being a parent or cause wrongful competitiveness (I am not anti-sports, though I am appalled that when they play so many schools and organizations have decided they can “NOT keep score!) it is time to stop. What is cute at 3-4 years of age may not be cute at 10-12 years. TV’s are not babysitters. For that matter parents are not babysitters. They are PARENTS!

As a parent I have gone through the mill with regard to children and what they can do. I have received the 2AM call of the “death” of my son, had the son move away and not hear from, had a daughter addicted to pills and more. Folks, I am not naïve. Nor do I think we made all the right moves. BUT… Love never fails.

When people lay down their agendas and their emotional weaponry and love and grace are allowed to prevail, life changes.

This morning my daughter Alyssa wrote this on Facebook.
I am 6 years clean and sober from drugs, and I realize that I put my family through some really bad stuff…but now I can sit back and see the results of long term drug abuse in other people, and for some ridiculous reason, the lengths that people will go to and the bull~~~~ that comes out of peoples mouths amazes the hell out of me. All I can say is Mom and Lee….I will forever be sorry for the stuff that I put you through, and I love you! More than words can say!

My daughter was worth it. When she came to live with us with three children, wounded, disappointed and discouraged, we took her in. When my son Matt came back from across the nation, he was touched by the love we extended. He tells people “even when I was unloveable my dad loved me.” My children are “precious in my sight.”

I have had more bedside chats with my kids than I care to think. Visited more hospitals, had more conversations with doctors and was pressed to the wall. But my kids are worth it! Why?
Because they were worth it to Jesus. And He placed worth in them.

As another grandchild is on the way and life has a way of being life, despite all, I am on the side of family.

I was not a perfect parent and my children were not perfect children. (Much of their life they grew up as “pastor’s kids” and the pressure was higher on them than others. Wow! Was that wrong!)

But love NEVER fails!

Family is and always will be the best!