Jerry B. Jenkins - Twelve Things I Want My Kids to Remember Forever

Twelve Things
I Want My Kids
To Remember
Forever

Jerry B. Jenkins

First published in the US, 1991 by Moody Press

2012 by Jerry B. Jenkins

Smashwords Edition

To Dallas, Chad, and Michael

T hough this book was truly written for and to my own kids, my hope is that you might benefit from it. Whether you have your own children or grandchildren, or perhaps have no children or arent even married, feel free to read over my shoulder as I attempt to remind my kids of a dozen broad issues I want them never to forget.

The day may come when youll want to formulate your own truths on papermaybe not in a book, but simply in a listto make certain someone knows clearly some of your own philosophies of life.

Your truths may in no way resemble mine. You may have just one or two, or twenty. Regardless, its the communicating of them that is important. My hope is that this book might serve as a tool to aid you in communicating truth with a capital T at the level of the child in your life.

The rest of this book may be viewed as private communication, permission for the revealing of which I have received from my kids.

I hope its of some help or encouragement or, at least, entertainment to you.

JERRY B. JENKINS

G uys, you have to know how much I love you. Then again, maybe you dont. Of course you dont. I couldnt fathom my parents love until I was grown and gone and had kids of my own. Its taken me twenty years of married life and watching your tireless mother to realize a fraction of what my mother did for me every day.

The same is true for all the ways my father showed his love, but there is something unique about the daily, nitty-gritty of a mothers love. More about that later.

I realize I am an archetypical, obnoxious father, naming our little homestead after you guys (Three Son Acres) and mounting poster-sized photos of you on my den wall. I talk about you endlessly to anyone wholl listenand too often to anyone who even pretends to listen.

Ive risked cheapening the very meaning of words that should mean everything when I tell you several times a day that I love you. Sometimes you respond, I know, Dad, and I say, You want me to quit telling you? and you say, No, its all right.

Ive seen too many parents who dont back up their verbal expressions of love, and I dont want to be numbered among them. I want to prove it every day, not by spoiling you or by having our entire home life revolve around you, but by so ordering my priorities that you know what you mean to me.

That means not shutting you out while Im working, when Ive told you and told you that you mean more to me than my work. That means making it to your activities, sometimes at the expense of my own (I sure hate to miss those boring meetings!).

Your time with us has already flown by so quickly that weve come to believe those predictions our elders madeand which we thought so sillywhen you were born: Itll seem like a week, and theyll be off to college. So, those drives to school, to church, to soccer, baseball, and basketball games are for only a short time.

Oh, lets get serious. When youre gone Ill miss those the most. Combine my love of sports with the thrill of seeing my own kids play, and you get one of the most fun things I do. Its no sacrifice. I cant get enough of it.

Being raised as you have beenand as we wereby born-again, evangelical, fundamental, independent, pro-life conservatives has its advantages and its drawbacks. Until you become adults and start looking at life through your hearts instead of your heads, you may think that more things in this world are black and white than is really the case.

I could fill a book like this with twelve things from the Bible alone that I want you to remember forever, but given how and where you were raised, and the churches and schools you have attended, youll likely remember the doctrinal basics whether you want to or not. Our prayer is that you will know the important, unchanging truth because it was modeled for you (albeit imperfectly) and because it has been proved in your lives as much as it was taught, lectured, preached, or driven into you.

The older I get and the more complex life seems to me, the simpler the great truths become. Ive met and read and sat under and been privileged to be influenced by many great thinkers. But when you really get down to it, the only things that really matter are that God loves you, God cares about you, Jesus died for your sins, Jesus is alive, and Jesus is coming again.

I know there are theologies and doctrines and shades of meaning and denominational differences and distinctives. I am also aware that if I were more of an intellect perhaps some of those issues might seem as important to me as the five I listed above. But if you live your lives according to those truthssupplemented by a bedrock belief in the truth and authority of Scriptureyou will find yourself loving and living for others, eager to see them come to Christ. You will find yourself going to church even when no one is making you, missions-minded even when its not the most convenient, serving when youd rather be served.

Oh, there are many more than a dozen things I really want you to remember forever. The majority of those I hope have been seared into your minds. It seems we tell you, remind you, cajole, encourage, crab, and nag every day some thousand things we imply you should already know.

So when I think about those things I want to be sure you remember when youre out from under our roof, I have to choose carefully. I think about those things that are not so obvious, that you have not been bombarded with at home, church, and school. Ive made these points, or tried to, all along the way, but I want to record them here in case they were missed.

Some will cause you to roll your eyes and say, Dad, how could we have missed that one? Others you will squint at and say, Really? I never knew you felt that way.

There will be those who criticize these for being too ordinary, too earthy, not spiritual enough. As I say, I hope the spiritual is embedded in you by now. And the only reason I make this private discourse public is that it might encourage others to document what they feel is most important. My twelve things will appear trivial to some, baffling to others. I might not find an overlapping truth in three other parents lists of unforgettable axioms.

Thats OK. These are for you.

You know how much I love you.

Well, at least you know that I love you.

Someday youll know how much.

Only by then Ill love you more.

My lifes goal is to stay ahead of your knowledge. I always want to love you more than you can know.

Love, Dad

LOVE
IS
AS
LOVE
DOES

I f you havent already, some day you will fall in love. Being in love is a misnomer, a meaningless, heart-thumping rush thats fun while it lasts, and it is so profound that no one will be able to talk you out of it. You will read these pages and know in advance that crushes, infatuation, and puppy love are tricks of the mind and heart, but when it happens to you, it will be different. No one has ever loved anyone the way I love her, youll say. This is bigger, more cosmic, more real, spiritual, dramatic, deep. In truth your feelings may be based on more than just looks or even personality. You may fall in love with someones mind, her way of expressing herself, her body language.

Itll pass. It always does.

But when youre in the throes of it, you will not be dissuaded. This is eternal, youll say. This is more real to me than my relationship with God.

I remember well the first time I fell in love. I was ripe for it. It was the summer before my junior year in high school. I had had girl friends, someone to walk to class or talk to on the phone till my parents threatened to bill me. But I had not been in love.