There are so many times that we have laughed and laughed or got frustrated and grumbled when we could not get things to go as they should. I think we are far from being alone in this. It can happen with trying to assemble flat pack furniture, cooking ready prepared food, in gardening matters and many other aspects of life. Usually this chaos is caused when we think we know what to do and find out that, actually we didn’t.

Pondering on this aspects of life’s little adventures, my thoughts turned to parenthood. When we become parents for the first time, this precious little bundle arrives and we soon find that there are no instructions at all – not even a diagram! It helps if one has younger siblings and memories of what our parents did although even that provide all the answers for each little one is unique. There are all manner of things we have to find out  for ourselves, very often relying on nothing but instinct. I think of our younger daughter’s first born who, it turned out, was lactose intolerant. It took some weeks of much crying baby, fruitless trip to the GP, two worried  parents not sure whether they were not doing something right. In the end instinct took them to a children’s hospital not far from where they live where a paediatrician soon made the correct diagnosis and provided instructions on how to deal with it. Now she is no longer lactose intolerant, instead she is healthy and bright and due to start school this September; a happy outcome.

What about Adam and Eve, the first parents? I wonder if God gave them any instructions or simply the intuition to cope with being parents. Fortunately we do have all that we need to know how to live Christian lives and how to come to salvation. That is, provided we read the instructions, but not only read them, we also have to put them into practice. The Scriptures are there to guide us through life and if followed carefully will give everlasting happy outcome.

Pam