There is no experience in the world like being a parent. It is an awesome responsibility with profound implications in the lives of others. The book of Proverbs provides a good commentary on what it means to be a parent.

To be a parent is to be a leader. “When I was my father’s son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother, he also taught me, and said to me: ‘Let your heart retain my words; keep my commands, and live’” (4:3-4).  A parent is charged with the most fearful task imaginable: take a completely helpless and ignorant infant, and turn him or her into a model human being within twenty years. This task requires all the skills of a teacher, a coach, a psychiatrist, a Marine drill sergeant, a CEO, a librarian, an accountant, a nurse—and a few dozen other disciplines. Some basic rules may be fixed, but most of the time a parent must make decisions on the fly, based on imperfect information. It is the ultimate test of decision-making ability. The stakes in this game are huge: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (22:6).

To be a parent is to experience pain.

Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, the training fails, and parents experience the nightmare of a child in rebellion. “A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him” (17:25). There is no pain like that of parents whose love and sacrifice are rejected and thrown back in their faces. Even if this is “just a phase” and the child eventually straightens out, the frustration of dealing with this irrational willfulness will keep a parent awake at night. And this does not include dealing with all the usual traumas of childhood: broken limbs, broken toys, broken hearts. Multiply these tragedies by the number of kids in the family, and it’s no wonder that parents’ hair turns gray.

To be a parent is to know joy. “The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and

he who begets a wise child will delight in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice” (23:24-25). For all the hassles of parenthood, the joy of seeing one’s children grow up to become responsible citizens—and parents of their own children—is beyond worth. Whatever else a father and mother might accomplish in their lives, to have successfully raised a child will always rank as their greatest achievement. It is the one thing that validates their contribution to the human race. No life is complete without having served as a parent. Take the role seriously, and accept it as the challenge it is—scary, but exhilarating.