“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children” (Psalm 103:17, NIV).

In our deacon’s meeting yesterday, one of our deacons asked us to pray for a long-term employee of his, a woman who had worked with him for 10 years, now discovered to have advanced pancreatic cancer. She has two sons in their 20s, one of whom is autistic. “She’s not so worried for herself as a Christian; her great concern is for her children.”

This is the God-given order of things. For His reasons, He has given us as parents a huge desire for our children’s well-being. On Father’s Day, I feel it even more deeply. It’s called love, imbedded in us by the Father who considers us His beloved.

Out of our love comes an intense desire for our children to succeed and be safe, but the world does not always cooperate. Our children may not always cooperate. Like us, our children are descendants of Adam. They, like us, have all taken a bite of the apple and inherited the freedom to choose between God and ourselves. Some of our children choose badly and suffer greatly because of that choice.

Then, there is this fallen world that sometimes crushes our children through no fault of their own, like this woman’s illness will crush her two sons.

How do we as parents trust and act as followers of Christ when our children are forced to carry unbearable loads, whether they picked them up themselves or had them forced upon them?

1. Hold them up every day to the Lord.
2. Trust God loves them even more than we do.
3. Trust God’s love leads to a good plan even if we cannot see it. God’s business has always been working all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). And, even if our children fail to love Him, I wonder if God does not count our devotion for Him to their credit, as in the verse above.
4. Sacrificially pour ourselves into the long-term, hard and sometimes discouraging work of supporting our children, whether or not it’s a mess they created, always seeking God’s wisdom to differentiate supporting from enabling.
5. Display God’s character and speak God’s wisdom into their lives as guided by His Word.
6. Enlist fellow Christians to care for them when we cannot.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14, NIV).

Dear Father,

Thank you for our children. Help us never to give up on your love for them.

Amen