If you are person with children, then you would definitely be familiar with all the struggles fellow parents have. Raising children is tough! Did i understate it? Let me repeat it for you, parenting is tough!
But then, we also know that there are joys and rewards to being a parent, especially when they come home bearing achievements and honors (no, not just medals). On the other hand, there are kids with a lot of problems. They can be troublemakers at home and in school. They can fail you at each turn, giving you grief and misery.
Rejoice my dear co-parents, God has a plan for everyone, including your children, however bad you think they are. Just take a look at Samson. He was born at a time when Israel was being oppressed by a tough enemy. God had a plan for Samson even before he was conceived! And its the same for everyone of our children.
Read again the the Bible verse above. Israel was oppressed by the Philistines for forty years. The Israelites had a hard time and when they could not take it any longer, they cried out to the one true God and the Father responded in a much different way. God gave them Samson who will deliver them from the hands of the Philistines.
God was with Samson and His Spirit stirred him. However blessed Samson was, had also had weaknesses. He liked Philistine women. Remember that one of God’s instructions to the Israelites before they took the promised land was not to intermarry with other people but Samson had relationships with them nonetheless. These relationships proved to be the downfall of Samson and a headache for his parents. How can Israel’s leader have relationships with non-Israelites? Wasn’t any Israelite woman good for him? It was a glaring disobedience of the commands of God. It also caused a lot of problems for his people.
You may be a parent whose child is making bad decisions (and who doesn’t?) These decisions cause pain to you and to others. But even in the mistakes of our children we can still believe that God has a special plan for our loved one even though they may stray from the right path. And God sometimes uses these mistakes to fulfil a higher purpose.
So let us not give up on our children. I know that you love yours and you should not give up all so easy. You may not know it but God may be preparing your child to do great things. Let us look past the mistake and look forward to God’s best.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article first appeared in CBN Asia’s website, www.cbnasia.org.
