I have had a lot of difficult jobs and positions in my life time. I would venture to guess that there is none harder than that of being a parent. When I discovered I was going to have a child, my life changed completely. I no longer took unnecessary risks.
When our youngest was born, there were "bag" phones, texting did not exist and there was no fear of society rocking our world. Today, all three of our kids are in college. One thing that I dislike more than anything else is social media. Texting, tweeting, chatting, all those rob a parent's time with their children. Oh don't get me wrong, sometimes that is the only means of communication but I completely dislike when I don't get a response.
Transparency stinks because we want the world to know we are good parents or good Christians or good spouses but the truth is there is only one perfect one and it is not us! So on to my story. I never know when to text a child due to them being away and not knowing class schedules but I so dislike not getting a response.
It is worse when I have to play the parent card! The other day I had to disagree with a decision that did not sit well with one of our kids. Hours later I sent a text explaining my position and taking away a privilege. It hurt me to have to do it but we as parents have to take a stand. I don't care if your 20 or 2. I sent the text expecting to get some sort of response...a hmmmp, ugg, boo-something. I got nothing.
I woke up the next morning and checked my phone and again, nothing. It saddened me that making a decision to take something away would cause such a reaction. In fact, I expected to get some kind of response. As parents our hearts break when our children don't respond to our direction and advise.
I realized that God often waits to get a response from us too. He speaks to us, guides us, directs us and we do the minimal to satisfy our own sense of "I love Jesus." He does not want "token" worship or devotion. He wants our total and complete attention. I imagine His heart breaks when we don't respond. Like me, God probably waits and waits for His children to call him back or respond to his call and yet He gets nothing.
I would never stop loving a child despite decisions they may make and God will never stop loving us despite decisions we make. He is a loving, forgiving God and will allow us to live our life and make our mistakes, Still, He will wait. He may take things away and He may change the direction of your life but He will always love you. God knows that we need Him. He is our source of life!
As a parent, I will continue to serve God first and pray that I would never close those lines of communication with Him because of my own desires.
#respondtotexts
Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things. Jeremiah 33:3
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