Hurt by Our Children

It has taken me years of soul searching and observation to believe that I had raised my children in the ways of the Lord.

There was one incident in my son’s teen years that gave me reason to think that my efforts might be futile. Our family was raised to love and respect the Lord by living His truths and to know that living for ourselves would reap consequences.

My son was 16 with a job, a car, and plenty of friends. One Saturday nights, he worked until 11:00 p.m. and then he would go to a friend’s house for the evening. One Sunday morning I was up early and saw that he had some mud on his car. I thought I’d give him a gift of washing his car before I went to church. After cleaning the outside of the car, I opened the car door to vacuum the mats. The smell about knocked me over.

In the back seat were numerous bottles of alcohol. How stupid could he have been? He could have been hurt, hurt others, or have been arrested. I was extremely angry, and then hurt. Upon opening the trunk lid I found a nearly empty 24 pack of beer. This only added to my pain as I quietly laid each item on the steps of the back porch. I just sat down and cried.

How could I have failed? I wanted to shake, yell, and motivate my son like I did when he was a younger child. All I could do, because of my obligations, was go early to church and pray for him. When he awoke and saw the evidence, he quickly got ready and went to church as he did each week.

Arriving, he asked my close friend if I was mad at him. The response was, “No, just really hurt”. Later that night we sat and talked and through his teenage tears he apologized for his actions.

From that time forward I noticed positive changes in his level of responsibility to himself and others.

I believe that God has some of those same feelings when we fail Him. He could get angry and punish us for making stupid mistakes in our lives. Instead, He loves us.

Maybe we should talk to the Lord on a one to one basis and tell Him our failures. Through His grace, we can show others the changes that will make the Lord proud of us as His children. Each time I talk to my son, I feel great pride to know that Proverbs 22:6 is true. 

"Raise a child in the ways of the Lord and when they grow old they will follow that training. "