Bathtub songs. Did you, do you have them? We did! Of course we used Barney’s song, “Clean-up, clean up, everybody do your share,” to get the house cleaned and the toys picked up.

But the bathtub seemed to be a good time and space to remind and repeat those things that were MOST important. I remember asking God, “What’s the most important thing here, Father? What do I REALLY want them to know? What really MATTERS?”

Our bathtub song went like this, with hand-motions, of course: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind; with all the strength that you can find. I love you, Lord.”

Begin with the end in mind.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know how to get there, or even if you’ve arrived! Only when we know the end goal of parenting and what really matters will be know how to get there and when we have arrived!!!

Someone asked Jesus what the end goal was: “Teacher, what is the most important commandment? (ie. Why are we here?) Jesus replied, ‘ You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.’ Matthew 22: 36-37

When Steve & I got married, we dreamed of having ‘little us’s’, children that we would get to raise and love and enjoy. But when we got pregnant, we suddenly realized this wasn’t just about us.

We were part of a much larger story.

We suddenly saw ourselves as not just a single family unit, but as a link in a chain of a whole LINE of family units; not only of our earthly families, but of God’s larger family, of which we were a part.

And as we prayed, we realized that God had chosen us to carry and birth and raise children that were really HIS children, with purposes and destinies that HE created them to know and fulfill, not only for their joy but for HIS Kingdom purposes and the good of the world!

Therefore, our end goal became more than raising good kids or having a happy family or producing responsible adults who would contribute to society: our end goal was for them to KNOW the Father who had created them, to know and experience His great love for them as His children, and to love him with all their heart, soul, mind & strength in return.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your foreheads as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This became our end goal. We wanted to begin parenting with this end in mind.

We didn’t do it perfectly; we would sometimes forget and get caught up in our own goals or the goals of our neighbors or even the American dream-goal; but we had committed wholeheartedly to this ONE goal, and our Father was faithful and kind to bring us back to what our hearts truly longed for.

We found we truly NEEDED to “repeat them again and again to our children” and to ourselves! To talk about our end goal at home, on the road,in the bathtub- over and over again. To post this end goal around the house and read about it in books we chose that would remind us of WHO our end goal was and how much He loved us!

It was easy to forget and make other things our end-goal: When good behavior became the end goal, we frustratingly focused on outward obedience and forgot the inner workings of the heart. When success at school became the end goal, we gritted our teeth & focused our time and energies on homework and grades above other worthy priorities. When becoming a basketball star became our end goal, Mom would scream at the refs and be mad at the coach if our son were not ‘given a fair chance’. When any other goal became our END goal, even temporarily, we forgot where we were headed, took many a wrong turn, and often were lost. Without the end in mind, our minds got hung up on what was in front of us.

But this is the BEAUTY of having an end goal! When we get lost, we just have to look up! When we forget, Father will remind us! When we confess our sins and forgetfulness, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us and set our eyes upon the end goal again!

Why? Because this is not only what we were CREATED for, our purpose in life, this is what makes our hearts sing and our souls feel full and our lives feel satisfied as no other end goal can do!!!! “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, it’s never even entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared for those that love Him!!!! But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit!!”

“I pray that the eyes of your hearts would be enlightened so that you could know the HOPE to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in us the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe!” Jesus said, “I have come that you may have LIFE – abundant LIFE!” “Therefore, seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else you need will be given to you!”(Eph.1, John 10, Mat.6:33)

Paul put it this way, “Therefore, we fix our eyes on JESUS, the author and perfecter of our faith… Set your minds on things above … We fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen; for that which is seen is temporary, but that which is unseen is eternal!”

The bathtub is one good place to take time to fix our eyes and set our hearts on what really matters: on the end goal! But it’s only one place: every walk you take, every breakfast/lunch/dinner, every book you read, every worship song you dance to… they are all times to repeat and remind and re-fix our minds on Jesus.

Whether you pick them up out of the crib each morning, or gently pat the back of your teenager who has slept through their alarm, it’s a good morning to joyfully remind them, “This is the day our Lord has made! We will rejoice and be glad in it. We thank you, Father, for another day you’ve given us. We thank you for loving us so completely and being with us today! We love you today, Father, with all our hearts, souls, and minds.” (And don’t forget the hand-motions….)