Full confession here. New Year’s Eve and Day are two of my very least favorite holidays. I’m not a fan of dwelling on the past or putting undue pressure on myself for the future. Yet there is some value at times to doing just that – especially while you are trying your best to parent your kids towards God.
So take a few minutes over the next couple of days. Get your spouse to join you. Ship the kids off to Grandma’s, leave them with a sitter or wait until after they are in bed (New Year’s Eve parenting tip – celebrate New Year’s Eve in a time zone that allows your kids to stay up about an hour later than normal, but still gets them in bed at a reasonable hour. I think we found some islands in the Atlantic Ocean that worked for our time zone!). Grab some paper and pens.
Be brutally honest, but don’t beat yourself up about past mistakes. No parent is perfect – I’m sure our daughter could give you a nice healthy list of the mistakes we made raising her. Don’t gloss over reality though or make excuses. The past is in the past, but this is about making adjustments and corrections for the future. No matter how old your kids are, it’s never to late to improve how you parent them towards God.
Parenting books and articles are full of lists of things to do to be a great parent. The assumption is that if you can check everything off of the list, you will have children who grow into becoming wonderful, successful adults. Christian publications are not immune either, as you can see by all of the tips in this blog over the years.
It doesn’t really matter if you are reading this post the day it went on the website or days, months or even years later. The world is filled with evil and lots of people who are more than willing to act in incredibly evil ways. Sometimes, they conduct their evil under the pretense of it being what God wanted them to do.
Ever wish you could get some of our tips in a format you could put in your Bible, hang on your fridge or share with another parent? Our first 
We’ve all been there. Or at least I have been there. No matter how much time, effort, prayer and love you put into parenting, there are days you feel like a failure. Even if you love being a mother more than anything in the world, there will be days you wish you were the kid again. It doesn’t really matter the cause, because often there isn’t one glaring thing. Sometimes the lack of sleep, having to instruct your child how to do or not do something for the thousandth time or having a house full of sick people just makes you want to crawl up in a little ball and cry.