“When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”

Children are a gift of God. They are not ours to keep. Just as our Holy Mother Mary offered our Lord to God, we to are called to do so through the sacraments. We start with the sacrament of Baptism. As “Stewards” to this great gift of Children, we are called to bring them up in the faith, abandoning self. To often we manipulate our children and push them in directions our Lord has not designed for them. We want them to succeed in this world and overlook the fundamental right God has over them first. We look at what WE want them to be, rather then what God created them to be.

I would bet my life there are thousands of “should have been” Catholic Sisters and Priests, in meaningless jobs today, lost in this world, because of a lack of direction as children, because mom & dad wanted grandchildren or their children to become SOMEONE.

The second we are conceived, we are someone whom God willed to give life to. To do His will and not ours.

To often we believe that having children means they are OURS and we can do anything we want, not taking into account that we were children once. We also believe having children is our right. Its not a right to have them but a Gift from God, given to us as “Stewards” to Him. They are to be brought up knowing our Lord and to do His will as they ALL belong to Him. Just as we all belong to Him. He is the “Creator” of all life.

When we do not give the children back to God, meaning, being there to teach them about God, and the faith we have in Him, the question becomes, who are we raising them for if they are not for God?