I sometimes think that.
In fact, I left one of my kids camping the other day. Who leaves one of their kids at a camp site? Apparently I do.
It was only for a moment and to my credit he was an older child who was in the car and jumped out at the last moment after my final head count, before we took off, after I returned from grabbing one last thing. We actually all had a good laugh about it afterwards.
After we figured it out and as we circled back to the camps site my brother in law, Kevin who was still there, remarked half jokingly "You don't want to leave Tanner, he is a good one."
The comment made me think of how Mary and Joseph must have felt when they thought they lost the Son of God.
Can you imagine losing the Son of God?
Can you imagine?!!!
The weight and loss and the worry that they had to endure for 3 days (a number with great significance) as they searched for their little boy? This responsibility was so great and uniquely theirs and they had seemed to fail. The fate of the world hinged on their imperfect hands and they had fallen short of their responsibility and sought him sorrowing.
They must have felt condemned like Joseph Smith did when he lost the manuscript...except much more.
When they finally found the child Jesus, he gives them a message that I believe is also valuable to us as imperfect parents today "Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business?"
God does not give his perfect children (they all start perfect), to perfect parents.
Even when they are lost, broken, hurt, it is part of the "the Father's business." It is part of the plan. We are part of the plan.
Our imperfections and striving to overcome our imperfections while raising our children, beautify and amplify this experience.
"Behold this is my work and my Glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Heavenly Fathers work isn't to make sure we have a cushy life, or a smooth sailing mortality, or that our kids do. That isn't his work. His work is to bring about our "immortality and eternal life" something that can only be brought to pass with a few rough edges, bruises and even lost kids.
It can happen when we learn to love another, one of God's children or our own children, so deeply as we love ourselves. As we watch others grow and care for them more than we care for ourselves. This is Charity.
Our children will get bumps and bruises along the way because we are on a ride together. We are imperfect and they are part of our ride. We try to protect them but we have to remember that even Mary and Joseph made mistakes and they were in charge of watching the Son of God.
Who are we to condemn anyone else when Mary and Joseph are the greatest mortal example in that God himself entrusted them with his son and even they fell short according to an outsiders standards in that they seemingly lost his child. In fact, if we are judging by how the kids turn out many parents in the scriptures fall short. It is an interesting phenomenon. Lehi, Zeniff, Mosiah, Alma. Even God the Father himself, an omniscient being, loses a third of his children. Why? because of agency. Being a parent doesn't mean you are a puppet master, being a parent means you are a guide.
Sometimes our children are lost, they get bruised, they get left, even when our hearts are right and we are doing our best. We need to remember that when we are doing our best it is all according our "Father's business." and part of the journey of mortality. We can take courage in that the most perfect of children even the Son of God was raised by imperfect parents.
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