I was sitting with a friend recently who was describing her frustration with one of her children. She was in the throes of the teenage years when it seems our kids take three steps forward and two steps back as they grow toward adulthood.
As I listened and related, I thought back to my own frustrations and inadequacy in raising our two sons. So many times I came to the end of myself! What I mean is, I suffered an inevitable loss of patience. Of course, that is exactly when I became moldable clay in God's hands.
After times of soul searching and coming up empty for the challenging task of parenting, I would come humbly before Him. He graciously placed His vision for my boys into my heart and soul. As a mother, the effect of this change of vision makes all the difference! He exchanged my limited resources and narrowed vision of their future with His limitless ones. Then, when my boys looked into my eyes, they saw their future as bright and hopeful.
"Picture a crown a few inches above your children's heads, and then watch them grow into it, " someone has said. What a helpful word picture! We do produce a picture of their future for them and if our relationship with our kids is strong, they will respond positively to being loved, trusted and believed in. After all, doesn't it bring out the best in each of us?
Internal attitudes become tangible through the window to the soul - our eyes! The Biblical principle is that I become like what I focus on and what I want to focus on is that my Father God loves me, trusts me and believes in me. So fellow child of God, focus on Psalm 46:10 which says, Be still and know that I am God because the future of our kids depends on it!
Keep me so focused on You, Lord,
that when my precious children and grandchildren
see their future in my eyes,
they will be inexorably drawn to You
and the difference Your presence makes in a life!
Amen.
