I guess it just sort of happens when you have a kid of your own ... you suddenly find yourself around children quite a bit. Even if you don't feel you have any gifts or talents for working with kids, you find yourself frequently surrounded by them. In our case, things like subbing for Sunday School teachers, working with our son's Cub Scout pack, and other school activities tend to let us meet a lot of his friends and other kids he is around.

We came sort of late to parenthood. We were both around 35 when Evan was born. Though some days can be long and have me often thinking that, when they were my age, my parents' kids were out of high school rather than just barely in elementary, I am glad that I am an older parent. Evan may less appreciate having an old geezer for a dad though ... I'm not sure.

One of the things that has become very clear to me is that kids do model the behavior they see in their parents. Now, yes, there can be medical conditions and other things (including the radical transformation that God will create in His people) which override this but, to a large degree, acorns don't fall far from the tree and kids often end up being a lot like their folks. If you want a child who is kind and compassionate, then reflect those qualities in your words and actions. If you want your child to be self-centered and quick to anger, then be self-centered and quick to anger yourself. If you would like to raise an adult who is calm and collected even in stressful times, then be calm and collected even in stressful times yourself. If you want a child who is anxious or fretful, then be anxious and fretful. If you want a child who always seeks to hear God's voice and to follow Him, then let those attributes be visible priorities in your life. And so on...

Now, don't get me wrong, I make plenty of mistakes and I am far, far from perfect but I do think I am better at these things at age 42 than I would have been at, say, age 30. I think I understand better how kids do model their parents. I think that, also, because of where I am on my faith journey, I am doing a much better job of exhibiting the qualities I would like Evan to model than what I would have done 10 or 15 years earlier.

I still have plenty to learn and plenty of growing edges to expand but, still, I am glad that I am an older parent. For me personally, I know that God has and is in that and, for that, I am very thankful.