09/21/2026
Children are blessings. But biology alone does not make someone a parent.
I’ve been thinking deeply about what happens to children when adults repeatedly enter their lives, make promises, disappear, return, and begin the cycle again. Research gives us an important distinction: children benefit from safe, positive, responsive parental relationships—not simply someone’s name on a birth certificate or occasional presence.
So perhaps we need to stop romanticizing presence and start talking about responsibility, consistency, integrity and peace.
Psalm 68:5 calls God a Father to the fatherless and a defender of widows. That speaks powerfully to me because fatherhood, at its highest expression, is not simply biological—it is protective, responsible, consistent and loving.
And mothers: we cannot spend our lives manufacturing another adult’s relationship with our children. We can tell our children the truth in age-appropriate ways, protect their hearts without poisoning them against another parent, honor lawful parenting arrangements, and surround them with healthy examples of love and integrity.
Maybe the goal shouldn’t be raising children who become flowers strong enough to grow through concrete.
Maybe we should start removing the concrete.
It’s time for a larger conversation about parental responsibility, family stability, accountability, and policies centered on the well-being of children.
