People who have committed their lives to the Lord naturally want their children to do the same. When you discover the Lord is the most important influence in your life, you naturally want that for those you love and especially for your children.

So, you pray and raise your kids according to God’s principles as best you can, like teaching them to eat right and have good health habits.

When they grow up, however, and make their own choices, it can be a dream come true or a nightmare for their parents.

From the journal .  .  .  . June 1993

I called my friend, Roxanne, this morning and she’s very frustrated with parenting.  Her daughter, Tammy, is very serious about her Mormon boyfriend.  Jeff (Roxanne’s husband) told the boy that if he goes on the Mormon mission, he would no longer be welcome in their home.  God, Jeff loves his little girl and is risking that relationship by confronting her boyfriend, but he needed to follow what he believed was Your leading.  What a sacrifice!  Is there a ram in the thicket somewhere?

Gen 22:9-19. ⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Lord, how can they love their way through this?  You brought to my mind how satan wants us to be discouraged with parenting.  He wants us to lose confidence.  I told that to Roxanne and she agreed that satan was doing a pretty good job. Oh Jesus, she’s terrified of losing her daughter.  Please send help from Your sanctuary.

Psalm 20:1-2 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!
May He send you help from the sanctuary
And support you from Zion!

God, another friend’s son got a girl pregnant.  Tyler is not into trouble but he’s off in Alaska and not serving You.  Pammy and Tally have turned from church.  Sarah has totally fallen away. Cami and Jessica are married to non-believers.  Dave ran away.  Angel is doing something weird.  Joan’s son has moved away from You.  Lord, have mercy.  It’s very difficult.  *

We had recently been though a similar situation with one of our kids so I could empathize with them all.

But Lord, You are faithful.  Keep Your hand on our wandering children. please. 

We have been in the same church family for many years and so we all hurt when we see our young ones turn away.  We hurt for them, and we hurt for each other.

Lord, does their behavior hurt You more than it hurts the parents?

And I Believe God Said:

When your eyes stray away from Me, that hurts.  Sin hurts.  When a person chooses sin, that hurts Me.  But there is hope.  You parents are often blinded by fear and disappointment.  I rejoice when you turn in faith, even during your blindness, and say, “I will trust you Lord, let Thy will be done.”  That is victory!

Jesus died because He wanted to give us the option of choosing Him. He could’ve just made everybody choose Him. There are times I really wish He would’ve just done that for me.  That’s not His way.  He loves our kids so much that they have to choose for themselves. We cannot do it for them anymore than He can do it for them.  What we can do is Hope, Pray and Trust.

1 Cor 13:4-7

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

*I have changed the names of all the people in this post!!!