The Prodigal Parent?

Luke 15:13 -- "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country..."

Oh how the years go by. One minute you're rocking your baby to sleep with a deep but happy tired and wondering how many hours of shut-eye you'll get to sneak in before he wakes up again. The next - your sending him off to college - or to his honeymoon - or to a different state because God called him there, or into the military ....

Image: Roshrulez

Or into a situation with which you are less than happy. Perhaps that now-grown baby bundle of yours made a decision that is not good for him. One about which you've spent hours on your knees in prayer. One about which you've expressed disapproval and concern. But - one that your son embraces, packs his bags, and marches off to experience, anyway.

What if you, as a parent - see a train wreck waiting to happen when your adult baby boy sees a blooming opportunity?

Reading the parable of the Prodigal Son recently it came to my attention that not much is mentioned about the Father who had to let his son march off into financial ruin and famine. We don't learn about the nights he spent in tears, or the begging he did when his son decided to leave with his inheritance tucked neatly into his pockets. We don't learn about the arguments, the begging, the gray hair that was earned by Dad during the ordeal. We don't see Dad clinging to the hem of his son's robes with white-knuckled fists in the hopes that he'll somehow convince his son to stay home and stay safe.

Why? It HAD to have happened, right?

We'll never know, will we? What we  DO know is that the parable is about the choices the child made. The focus is on the life of a young man that made poor choices and the consequences of those decisions. It's about forgiveness and rejoicing when the lost is found.

BECAUSE - the tale is about the son. Not the Father.

My dear fellow parents - there comes a time when we step back and hand the reigns over to our children. Sometimes, that experience is painful and fraught with worry. And even when the situation is optimal in our child's favor - it's still sad to a degree - as we hope and worry that our child will be granted his every hope and dream .... and be kept safe.

As scripture says for us to "train up a child in the way he should go" - we learn along the line that it's not about what we want. All the training and praying for our beloved babies is about what THEY need. Not what WE desire for them.

As the pages of this life story draw out into chapters and the main characters change - we learn that the focus is not on us - it's on our children.

I'll never forget being hunched over in the floor of my quiet little closet, recently - making a horrible attempt to pray with complete humility. I wanted to pray for myself - that God should PLEASE talk some sense into my child before things went terribly wrong and he made some choices that would lead to disaster. But in that silence - as my ears started to ring with complete quiet - I was gently reminded that life is not always about me. In fact - it isn't EVER about me at all - is it? It's about serving my Savior with everything I am. It's about teaching my children to do the same.

And when it's time to hand over the reigns in this life - it's time to do exactly that. Hand them over.

So I prayed for my son. I prayed that God guide him and grow him completely.

I think that's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. And it probably will not be the last time it happens, either.