Hi, and welcome to Five Word Prayers Daily, a five-day-a-week daily devotional where we share the word, prayers, and our heart.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent.

We're talking commitment this week, and today and tomorrow we're going to be diving into what I find to be one of the toughest jobs on the planet, but also the dearest and best. I'm asked about it a lot, though it's not something I focus on

in my writing and speaking very much. It's something I do, though, want to spend a couple of days on

because I want to encourage and also just share some things I've learned in my 20 years of holding

down this job. Yes, we're talking

parenting. And even if you're not a parent, I hope you'll stick around because there just

might be a nugget or two in. So hard for me to believe. But let me tell you something. I had zero clue what I was doing. I wasn't a huge babysitter when I was growing up, and although I loved

babies, I didn't know what to do with my son when I brought him home from the hospital, especially

when he cried, and trust me, he cried a lot. We found out later he had horrible acid reflux,

which was the cause of much of his crying, but I can remember so vividly many times looking

over at my friends with

these perfect babies who never cried, and here was mine who cried constantly. And I was sure that

it was some great flaw in my character that made me a bad mom, and that was his problem.

Man, I wish I could have fast forward to know what I do now.

But the truth is, all parents feel out of our league at some point or many points.

And somewhere along the way, it is so tempting to throw the towel in and just run away from home.

So obviously we can't do that.

But man, we want to.

And though we might not physically run away,

a lot of us do run away, even in our own home. We sort of vacate our job. We numb ourselves.

We let them do what they want. Sometimes it's just easier, especially when they become teens,

...