Go To The Lord With Your Problems, Even Those Self-Induced

Word-Of-The-Day:  ‘(3) Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. (4) Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. (5a) Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.’ (Psalm 127:3-5a)

Our children are indeed a blessing, but they do come with ‘baggage’.  The worry and concern never stops when they turn 18 or leave home.  There is always something they need from ‘dear old Dad’ or ‘sweet old Mom’.  It does seem like their problems often become your problems.  Our daughter, when she was still in college, had a car that was no longer dependable, so she bought a new-to-her car but had not gotten rid of the old car.  (The title was in my name, so she could not trade it in.) She asked me what she should do with her old beater. I told her to call one of the ‘we-pay-$$-for-junk-cars’ businesses in the Orlando area and they would come get it, and left it in her hands as setting up a clunker tow-away shouldn’t be all that difficult, right? 

A couple of months later, Our darling daughter calls me in a panic.  I was at work on MacDill AFB in Tampa at the time, in the middle of a busy afternoon, telling me the car needed to be gone TODAY, or she would start getting fined daily for having a derelict car left in the complex.  I asked if she had called one of these towing companies and the answer was ‘no one in Orlando does this’. 

So, I dropped what I was doing, went online and Googled ‘Junk Car Removal in Orlando’, called the first number that came up, and within an hour they came and towed the clunker away from her apartment, even giving her $100 for it. Surprisingly, someone in Orlando did exactly what ‘dear old Dad’ said they would do, an amazing feat of mental powers for old Dad to predict this and make it happen. 

Was I a bit perturbed?  Yes, of course, and in a fatherly fashion chastised her accordingly.  However, I also recognized that she knew who to call to resolve this particular issue that she procrastinated on.  She knew (as does our son) who they can depend upon for these types of needs when they arise.  Sometimes it’s fatherly or motherly advice, sometimes it’s ‘I need help now to take care of <fill in the blank>’.  The reward is when you see them actually learn from what you’ve shown them, to grow and to succeed in life – in their careers, in their education, as parents, and my prayer is to see them grow in the Lord.  Our reward is knowing we pass on our knowledge and our Faith to our children so it is continually handed down, and the earthly hope is that they can do better with that knowledge and Faith. 

In much the same way, Our Father God knew when He made us human beings, we would also come with a lot of baggage.  Like our kids, there is always advice that He gives us, or instructions for us to follow, and we don’t always follow them.  When it backfires on us, what do we do?  We ask Our Father to fix the issue at hand.  We recognize who to call to resolve the issues we create; we know who we can depend upon when these issues arise.  I’m sure we humans can be a bit exasperating at times, and I picture the Lord muttering ‘didn’t I have Paul write this down in Thessalonians?’, though I don’t believe the Lord mutters or sighs, as nothing surprises Him; He expects these things from us.

Jesus’ goal in His ‘parenting’ is for us to come to Faith in Him, to accept Jesus as Lord and to be there to worship Him and Him alone for all eternity, having come through the trials of mortal life to join our Lord immortal in praising Him; and our ultimate reward is to have our children join us in that Heavenly Choir to sing praises alongside us!