Muddling Through

Struggling today as I watch our oldest son try to make sense of his world.  As a momma I want to "fix" things, to take away the situation, to shelter him from hurt, dissapointment, and anger. But I am realizing that doing those things will only cripple him and make facing future struggles harder. It is time to teach him how to cry out to God for help, to pray and seek the will of the Father, to choose to lay it all at the feet of Jesus, to search the Word for encouragement and a Word that he can hold onto in this time. To teach him that forgiveness is not for the benefit of others but to reconcile us back to the Father. To teach him that in this world we will have trouble but we can be of good cheer because Jesus has promised to carry us, to walk beside us and HE WILL NEVER LEAVE OR FAIL US. To teach him that we cannot expect any human being to be able to get it right.....we all fall, we all sin, we all get it wrong. But it is in the getting up and turning to God that we find peace and restoration. To teach him that we are not called to be pleasers. To teach  him that we are not called to make others happy. To teach him that while different sins reap varying degrees of consequences, that God sees ALL sin the same, an offense that requires death as payment. To teach him that Jesus paid that price for ALL sins. Even the sin of the one that hurt him. A hard lesson to teach when all I want to do is to encourage him to hold onto his hurt, to continue building the walls around his heart and to choose to NOT be vulnerable. But those are MY issues, and it would be unfair and cruel to lay those burdens on him and ask him to walk out his life with MY issues on his shoulders. If I am going to teach him about the power of God, the forgiveness of God, the healing of God and the peace that comes when we surrender then I need to walk it out and live it in front of him as a tangible, living example. He will learn that we are all imperfect people striving to live like Jesus Christ and we will mess up but that He provided a way back....confession and forgiveness. Praying today for wisdom, discernment and the love of Jesus to be evident in my life, my words and actions as I teach our sweet young man.