As a parent, you want so much to help your kids through life's trials, but the world has done a pretty good job convincing them that as parents, we "just wouldn't understand." Can't say this generation is any worse about it than those in the past....how many remember the phrase, "Never trust anyone over 30"? For the past few 50 years we've been moving away from the "Father knows best" toward "My parents are clueless" attitudes. I guess I was as guilty as the rest. I remember thinking at 10 my parents hung the moon. By the time I was 14, they were getting a bit senile. When I hit 18, I pretty much knew it all and my poor old parents were just OLD! Then a funny thing started happening. I got to my early 20's and started calling my parents for a bit of advice. By 30, I was calling on a regular basis! Now that I'm in my 50's, I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to call them and just say I was sorry for being such an idiot all those years and WISHING I could ask them for their advice just one more time. I know this isn't something new to just me. Mark Twain is quoted as saying, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
Now I am the parent and I have to sit by and watch my own children struggle with things that I might be able to help with, but they think I won't understand. They shut me out, sometimes talking to their peers, but rarely to their parents. Then I got to wondering if I do the same thing toward God. The world does a number on us telling us that God just won't understand; that He'll be too disappointed in us if we struggle; that He's just too out of touch with us to understand. But the world is wrong.
As a parent, I may over-react, get angry or simply be clueless as to how to help...but God doesn't really have that problem. He knows just what to do. He knows exactly how to mend the broken heart, bring direction to the path, or simply clean up the mess of a life...if we simply come to Him. He longs to help us! In Matthew 23:37, Jesus spoke these words, "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! .... How often I've ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn't let me." Sounds like words I wanted to say to my own children at times.
Teens seem to build a wall to protect themselves, but these walls actually shut out those who love them and want to help. That is why as parents we must fight for them....and fight again. In the words of my pastor, "Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do." This is a battle we cannot give up on. Even though the words "I'm just so tired" come from my mouth more often than I'd like, I can thank heavens that our Savior never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of His understanding and I am not in this fight alone.
Do I expect my children to come running to me for advice tomorrow? Not likely. But I will continue to fight for them, pray for them, and know that God loves them even more than me. Come to think of it, I think it's probably time to seek His advice and ask HIM what to do.
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