We Hold Them

Recently a friend of mine sent a message letting me know she prayed for my son as he came to her mind and heart. I truly appreciated that message. Everyday I hear the same cry from parents – ‘pray for my children’. When they are young we lift them, hold them in our arms. When they are grown, our posture is different. Though we don’t lift and hold them anymore; we continue to lift them up to heaven and hold them in our hearts and mind daily.

Our children hold a unique place in our hearts. As they mature, spread their wings to find their place in this world – we pray they find purpose and meaning in this equally bitter, sweet world. We know they’ll experience pain, struggles and their own fair share of disappointments. Ever so often we’d like to shield them from the storms that will undoubtedly bombard their shores. The truth is they will have to deal with the deluge that comes to sweep over their lives and develop the fortitude to rise above it all. They will not escape it. It’s all a part of the human experience. So we hold them up to the same Father who has kept us thus far. We love, guide, support and pray. We never stop holding them from a place of faith and trust.

For moms, dads and grans who are holding up your adult children – I stand with you. Whether they are enrolled in Yale or the jail, we cannot afford to stop fighting for them. As they climb the ladder of success, we take nothing for granted. Not everything that glitters is gold. Not everything that appears to be good is God. Sometimes when everything seems to be going wrong and there seem to be a barrage of setbacks – they are exactly where they were meant to be. This is where maturity, growth and refinement takes place. The processing that molds them into who God designed them to be. Like we did, they will come to embrace the school of discomfort. A place where life-changing lessons are learnt.

Be reminded our children are born with scarred souls; flawed and in need of divine restoration. The best of them are fractured in places we can’t see with our human eyes. So we hold them up to their Creator. The One who , with one touch of His hands, can do what years of talking, screaming, punishing and human wisdom couldn’t do. His plan is to redeem their fallen nature and restore it to it’s original state. So we hold them up to the God of restoration.

Never agree with what the enemy has to say about them. Believe that God ‘knows the plans He has for them, plans to give them a future and a hope. Believe that He will make their crooked paths straight. Trust that they will be like a well-watered garden. That their souls will be satisfied in dry and scorched places. Expect favor to surround them like a shield. Though they walk though the valley of the shadow death; they will fear no evil. Their stony hearts will be replaced with a heart of flesh. We trust God to step into their dark and light their path. To make His ways known to them. They will not walk as fools but as wise understanding what the will of the Lord is. If they ever lose their way, like the prodigal they will find their way home. For He has promised that they shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be their peace. Even now Lord- let it be so!

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