Grace of God

I thought I'd better write this down before I forget, because I am not able to remember a thing lately.
I am learning about the names of God in church, and one of them is Shephard and Lamb. Jesus is our shephard, but he is also the Lamb. We are also His sheep. Sheep are stupid and easily led astray, and the Shephard calls them, guides them, seeks them and finds them. Sometimes He uses a rod, and that is not a fun experience, but the end result is so worth it.
Anyways, I realized that we are doing that with our kids. We are the shephards and they are the stupid sheep going their own way and we are sticking our rod in their paths to keep them from going astray, or guiding them back, or occasionally smacking them with it to get some smarts in their heads, hehe. Sometimes I feel so bad limiting what they can do, when it seems harmless to the world, but we see that it is spiritually distracting to them, and harmful to their character. I feel as though I am mean and cruel to them, keeping them from "fun", and I want my kids to have fun and be happy, but I want them to be on fire for Christ, heaven bound servants of the King. I can't keep them from regrets in life, but I can show them that there are higher standards out there for them and that they should accept no less. The righteous shall stumble 7 times, but shall rise again. There is grace and mercy for those mistakes.
And, oh, do we need it right now! I found great encouragement in this area, great hope, as I read a wonderful blog today. We need some major intervention right now, and no way to get it without God. It becomes more and more obvious that only God can cause the miracle we are needing. I have seen and experienced that My God is able to do more than I can think or imagine, so I know that He can perform this miracle for us.