I Owe Them...

I was watching the old movie "Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner"... And in it a father is telling his son how much he owes him for all that he sacrificed for him. For the coat he bought him as a child. For the second job he worked to put him through college. And I was completely shocked by the response of his grown son... "I don't owe you a thing." As soon as the words left his mouth I scooched to the end of my seat waiting for what the character would say next.

He went on to explain to his father, his take on parenting... He believed that if a person was willing to have children they owed the children to provide well for them. Who would have thought that a child telling a parent they "owed" them could make sense? "You owed me the same way I will owe my son."

It was a concept I found myself agreeing with... So often you hear parents speak of how their children "owe" them. Of how grateful their son should be for the late nights of baseball practice. Or for then expensive prom dress a father bought... While extravagence is not necessary, you had that child knowing that most boys love sports and that daughters need dresses for dances and a wedding. To become a parent is to say "I choose to care for this child to the best of my ability..."

Blake and I brought Will into our home and Riley into the world... Do we not owe them the best provision we can give them?