I have a young lady in my family right now who is particularly challenging. Actually, I have a few that are particularly challenging in their attitudes and actions. What is really reassuring NOW is that I've been through this before.
I don't have a three-year-old any more, but I noticed that each of my girls got particularly difficult at the age of three. The first couple of times, it was scary and I felt like a failure. By the third time round, though, I could look at my older kids and realise that they didn't *stay* that way.
So now, with my growing-up girls, I have hope. I'm still finding certain attitudes and behaviours very difficult to handle with wisdom and grace, but I can see the older girls are turning out OK... they haven't stayed that way
Every day that I'm thinking straight, I pray for wisdom. I pray for God to guide me in His will, to walk in His ways. And day after day, I struggle, but over time, I'm seeing the fruits of God working in my life in every area that I have truly submitted to Him (since I'm not perfect, there are plenty of areas that I'm still working on submitting to God!)
So, what I'm saying is, when we put *our* lives in God's hands, our kids will (probably) be OK. Does God guarantee that they will walk with Him? No, because then there would be no free choice, but we can know that we haven't inadvertently ruined them. When you're battling with the three-year-old, or the six-year-old or the 13-year-old, you can know that if you keep coming back to God, they will be OK... mostly... probably. They will make their choices, and yes, some may go off the rails, but you can know that you did your best. AND that God doesn't give up on anyone.
As my dear Nanna used to say: "it'll all turn out in the end."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment