Here's a quote for parents during those inevitable times when we feel like failures because our efforts to raise perfect children somehow came up short: "And what if we could have been the perfect parents? The creation story brings a fascinating dimension to this. Adam and Eve had the perfect father and lived in the perfect environment, but they chose a way their father didn't want them to go." - Rob Parsons in Bringing Home the Prodigals
Sure, we make mistakes as parents and we must take responsibility for them and try to parent better. That's tough enough without the weight of false guilt. Sometimes we must recognize that our children have free will, too, and sometimes they make poor choices. When that happens, can we love them like God loves us?
1 comment:
A point I keep thinking about. God the Father's two created children turned their backs on him ... at least long enough to lose their inheritance.
We find that with our "prodigal" we hurt a lot and reach out and welcome him, but have also recognized that while we love him, we have to love him enough sometimes to let him fall down and feel the pain of his decisions. That is very difficult to do.
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