Train Up A Child

God spoke to me about this verse this morning:

"Train up a child in way HE should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 21:6, emphasis mine.

I began to ponder what this meant to me.  After all, all of my children are now young adults and living on their own.  I certainly still have influence in their lives, but the daily disciplining of a child is no longer one of my duties.

That still small voice of God was so very clear when He spoke to me..."Debbie, so often you are trying to direct your children in a way so that they do not make YOUR mistakes, instead of directing them the way I say they should go."  

Oh my, how true that is!  You see, my path has been quite crooked.  I have stumbled and fallen more times that I want to count.  My life has been broken, shattered and slowly put back together again....and the heartache has been so great that it is sometimes, even now, difficult to speak of it without tears streaming down my cheeks.

But isn't that exactly what brought me to the foot of the cross?  Isn't that why I have become so dependent on my Savior, leaning of the the everlasting arms?   Wasn't it every single loss, heartache and life altering mistake that brought me to Him?

I'm not saying that my children must go through that same path to find Jesus...and I'm not saying I just watch them jump from a cliff....but I am saying, that it isn't my job to direct them in a way that I do not want them to go..but to direct them in the way that Jesus wants them to go....no matter the cost.  No matter what it may seem like to me.

I do not want my children to make the same mistakes I did.  I do want all of my children to live for Jesus.  To love Him, to be world changers for the cause of Christ.  And my part in doing that is directing them in way He says they should go.

One of my favorite verses is 3 John 1:4: I have no greater joy than to hear than my children walk in truth.

So how will I do this?  Pray for and with my children when direction is needed, and let the Father speak before I do.

I'll keep loving them, praying for them and giving much grace and much mercy....just as He has done for me.

Happy Sunday!