Irene and I have two sons who are identical twins, of whom we are tremendously proud. They have been a pleasure to watch in the greatest portion of their lives. They are now mature men of God with gifts from heaven that operate in them abundantly. Their wives have become our daughters and they each [...]
Irene and I have two sons who are identical twins, of whom we are tremendously proud. They have been a pleasure to watch in the greatest portion of their lives. They are now mature men of God with gifts from heaven that operate in them abundantly. Their wives have become our daughters and they each have two children that are our life’s joy as grandparents. Our sons, Joshua & Joel, have been a constant strength to our family, especially to their five sisters, Katie, Alisha, Alayna, Lacey and Johanna.
There was a time when the boys, in their teenage years, drifted away from the Lord and from the teaching and disciplines from which they were raised. They did what is common all the more in this perverse world, as they came under the pressures of that perverse worldliness that has been gaining strength in these last days.
When it was revealed to us that our sons were living in a most extreme lifestyle of sin and bondage and walking in danger and peril of their very lives, we were stunned for weeks. I remember crying so long that my tear ducts dried up and there were no more tears, though my crying continued.
One lonely afternoon as I was on my knees in sorrow the Lord’s voice came to me saying, “Are you through, yet?”
Startled, I said, “Did you want to say something?” He replied, “So, you are a bad parent, huh?” to which I began to cry and wallow in my sorrows again. You see I was thinking that it was all about me. Parents commonly make that mistake, ya know.
Then the voice of the Lord said to me a most profound revelation of life in the form of a rebuke to my whining. He said, “Then I must be the worst parent of all, since, you don’t even do all that I say to you.”
That was a swift and forceful rebuke to a soul so damaged by the self-indulgences of personal sorrows. My mind began to whirl in the thought pattern of how we blame ourselves for the behavior of our children, even when we have done our best to love them, protect them, and give them a better way to live than anything that the world can offer them. We just want to believe that love is enough.
Well, it is. Love is more than enough. It’s just that His love is enough and ours is forever lacking. I can hear Bruce Hornsby singing the song, “That’s just the way it is. Some things will never change.”
Our love is never enough for our children. The Father of lights has designed it so. We cannot usurp His position in our children’s lives.
He holds the life of each one of us as very near and dear to His heart. Though we rebel, we may even hate Him at times, His love never reacts to our foolishness but appeals to us for unity. Our children are truly His and we need to trust His parenting skills and not ours. But neither can we believe that there is such great failure in our own parenting adventures that He cannot deal with each of our children as individually His own.
I have seen so many children rebel who had good and decent upbringing. Yet I have seen children with the worst of parents, and even no parents at all, become wonderful examples of the citizens of heaven, leading faith filled Christian lives. How does that work? Does parenting not matter?
I’m reminded of a song by Keith Green that says, “You just keep doin’ your best, and pray that it’s blessed, and Jesus takes care of the rest…”
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian Church in crisis, saying, “After having done all to stand, stand…” and that is what is expected for each and every one of us. That includes our parenting adventures. Let us do our parenting with His Spirit and let us remain in partnership with His Spirit through the whole process. Whether you were a good parent or a bad parent is quite immaterial to the fact that those children are His children and He gives them the Spirit of adoption whereby they can call out to Him as Abba! Father!
I have recorded a prayer that might help you to pray for your sons or daughters during troubled times. In this prayer I pray like I prayed for my son Joshua during his most troubled times. You simply insert your son or daughter and consider it our prayer of unity and agreement for your child(ren).
A Prayer For Wayward Children
We also have a message on Compact Disk (CD) that we present on our product table in which Joshua tells the story of his prodigal adventures, his time away from God, how far he went away from his upbringing and the rescue of the Lord. He had an angelic visitation that was extraordinary. You can order that CD here or click the icon below. I believe it will give hope to those who have children who are captured by the world’s arrogant hold.
Click to purchase this message on CD
Powerful Prayer!! Thank you!
Powerful Prayer!! Thank you!