47 GIVE YOUR CHILDREN TO GOD AND YOU’LL
ALWAYS HAVE THEM.

“I hope I never lose my children,” said a controlling mother.

She lived her life through her children. When they left home and started families of their own, this lonely mother lost her reason to live. She had lived her life through her children.

Possess children only to lose them. Children belong to God, not to parents, society or the government.

The mother and father of a teenager had to finally surrender the discipline and control of their son to God. They gave up trying to manage his life. The discipline of the Father was harsher than theirs and also more effective.

The loving father in Luke 15 allowed his son to leave and go to a faraway country. He never stopped believing that son would come home and restore the relationship. But he had to let go and let God take control. And when the son came to himself, he returned to the loving father.

You may have a child in the foreign land of rebellion and estrangement right now. Consider the parable in Luke 15 as your source of hope:

•     Your child is never too wicked. The prodigal son wished his father dead and demanded his inheritance.

•     Your child is never too far away. The prodigal son went to a faraway land.

•     Your child is never too lost. The penniless, Jewish boy was tending unclean pigs—what degradation!

•     Your child is never absent too long. The loving Father waited, looking down the road until that day the son finally came to himself.

The loving parent is willing to let a child run straight into the discipline of the Father. Let the child go. The loving parent is also always ready to let God do whatever it takes, wait for as long as it takes, to forgive, to take back, to restore, and to celebrate a child’s return with blessing … not with “I told you so.”

“For my son was dead is alive again; He was lost and is found.” And they began to be merry (Luke 15:24). Action Steps I/We Need to Take