We must be intentional as parents. We certainly need to be prayerful. Prayerful is different than perfect.

None of us are capable of parenting perfectly. None of us were parented perfectly. Perfect parenting is not possible, but prayerful and intentional parenting are possibilities for all of us.

God has unlimited resources to accomplish his will in your kid’s lives. That fact was proven to me once again when I heard about how God was at work in the life of an 11-year-old girl who was attending a child sponsorship event with her family.

Her family already sponsored two or three kids, but this little girl came to her dad asking to sponsor a child on her own. The father was reluctant because he assumed the responsibility would ultimately fall back on him, but his daughter was insistent.

Her dad finally agreed to let her sponsor a girl about the same age. Over the next few years, his daughter did numerous odd jobs to raise money for her sponsor child. She did some babysitting, and as she got older, she got a job at a fast-food restaurant. She sponsored this little girl all the way through high school and college.

This father told about how, between the ages of 16 and 19, his daughter faced some really challenging years. She started hanging out with the wrong crowd. She dated a boy who was a bad influence.

She began to question her belief in God. She didn’t want to attend church with her family. Of course, her parents were quite concerned. There was a lot of uncertainty about their daughter’s future.

Several years later, as a young lady with her life back on track, this girl showed her parents some of the correspondence she had with her sponsor child. During those difficult teenage years, the two girls were confiding in each other through the mail, even though they had never met in person.

In those letters, she had spoken honestly to her sponsor child about her questions concerning God. She shared some of the temptations she was facing as a teen girl. She even expressed some of her frustration with her parents.

Her sponsor child wrote back encouraging her to remain faithful to God. She told her to make wise choices and to continue to love and trust her parents.

God was using a sponsored girl, who was living in poverty on the other side of the world, to disciple this young girl’s heart back to him. That’s the kind of big God we serve. He is in control. He can be trusted.

You may read Steve Greene’s blog at pastorgreene.wordpress.com or you can email him at [email protected].