GROWN CHILDREN

All your children will be taught by the LORD…Isaiah 54:13

 

Last night my brother and I were having dinner together. As often happens, we were talking about family—all our children are grown now—and how we never know until much later if our methods will yield the results we hoped. Both of us are still in the watching mode, but we did agree that our parents, particularly our father, had a firm impact on us.
Papa taught us to persevere and never give up; he urged us to excel (“Anything worth doing is worth doing right.”); he taught us integrity by example; and he taught us to work hard, among other things. Our mom, on the other hand, focused on spiritual values and was the source of wisdom as we were trying our own spiritual wings. They took the responsibility of parenting seriously and left nothing to chance.
I suppose Jack and I will both be parents as long as we live. We shared prayer concerns and discussed matters that as parents of grown children, we are trusting our heavenly Father to direct and inform. Letting go and releasing our children to the Lord is an ongoing exercise as we see our children stumble and scrape spiritual knees. We wish healing were still only a matter of finding the Bactine and Disney Bandaids. But we don’t want to stave off the struggles that draw our children closer to the Lord and that shape their characters to be more like him.
While we were talking, Jack’s cell rang. His grown son, a father himself who lives in another state, was calling about a trivial matter but one that needed his dad’s input. (Looks like Jack succeeded on the communication issue. His son definitely knows Dad is there for him to share about the smallest concern. Just like his heavenly Father.)
As we sit back and watch, we observe our children embracing many of the principles that were taught and modeled while they were growing up and many they are now teaching their own children. We hold our collective breath as we see some of them treading treacherous waters, but we wait in faith knowing that they are even more precious to our heavenly Father than they are to us. We watch, remembering the promises given to us as parents: “ Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6).” “All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace (Isa. 54:13).” “In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge (Prov. 14:26).” “ Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you (Deut. 4:40)…”
When my son was five or six, he made a pronouncement: “Mom, when I grow up, I’m going to be a Christian but not like you. I’m not going to read all those books (pointing to the devotional books I savored each morning).” Nowadays, he calls and asks if I read Daily Light or My Utmost. It’s working.

 

Father, more than anything, we want our children and their children and their children’s children to know you and to enjoy you—forever. Fulfill your promises to us as we wait and trust in you. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.

GROWING UP

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  I Corinthians 13:11  (NIV)

 

In South Texas we’ve experienced years of drought—until this year.  And now we have an abundance of rain, so much so that our aquifer here is filling, and we are having a reprieve from years of rationing water.  Which reminds me of the years when my children were small…

As a preschooler my son Christopher had a little yellow, plastic, inflatable boat.  It was just the right size for him to crawl into, lie down, and float.  In those days Christopher stayed on the lookout for rains, showers, any precipitation that would bring enough water to flow down our street.  When those happy events occurred, out came the yellow boat.  We’d go outside to the curb where I would launch Christopher and his boat down the quiet residential street, and he would gleefully float to the end of the block where we would pick up the little vessel, retrace our route, and begin again.  This was the height of childhood fun until…

Christopher got bigger and older.  The little yellow boat didn’t hold him any longer, and floating down the street no longer interested him although he had a habit of saying, “Mom, I will always…”  Christopher was convinced as a young person that his interests would stay the same, that life for him would be static.

As young Christians, sometimes even more mature ones, we think various activities and life styles, ministries, interests, and vocations will always be the same.  Then God starts to rock our boat; circumstances shift; relationships end; life brings about transitions.  Nothing stays the same.  But we worry that God will take things from us, and so we cling to what we know forgetting that as we change, the old and the familiar lose their charm.  Essentially, we grow up.  And as we grow, we can trust God to bring what is needed for this new phase.

Corrie ten Boom said we should hold all things loosely lest God has to pry them from our hands.  Don’t be afraid of letting go, of giving things up, of making sacrifices.  God always has something better.

 

Father, give us courage to trust you through every phase of life knowing that you always intend everything for our good and your glory.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.