Point of No Return

There comes a time in life when your child crosses the threshold and their innocence will never return.

I remember one day when Abby was little and she came home and told me that there were two men living around the corner from us and they were married. We had to talk about a subject that I wasn't prepared to have with her while she was just a little child.

Recently, there have been issues that have come before us with the kids. You wish you could go back and protect them from the evils of the world. You wish that you could spread your wings over them and return to a place where life is filled with butterflies and sandcastles and the most complicated conversations are about what you will put on the dinner table. Life moves at a frightening pace and hard conversations take place at an earlier and earlier age.

I wish it were not so, I prayed it were not so. Recently we had some conversations with Dylan. But that day of no return came, there was nothing we could do to stop the wheels from turning. I guess you could say it is better to have conversations in our own home, so they can hear the Godly point of view and the consequences of certain choices. Recently at my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers), I sat and watched the young moms, thinking how simple their life is at this point. They are able to control all the outside influences of their young ones. One day, as they grow older, the influences become greater and their innocent child will be pulled and tugged many different directions. One day that baby will no longer enjoy the title "innocent".

There are safeguards we can put into place while Abby and Dylan live under our roof, but at some point, our children will make their own choices and the only place we will be able to be is on our knees. I have watched many before me, some in spite of their prayers and unconditional love and support have watched their children make many UnGodly decisions. They cry out to God for His protection and mercy. I'm not sure where my precious children are headed. There are no guarantees in spite of our love and prayers.

I pray for them to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I pray for sin to be revealed quickly before it takes a stronghold in their life. I pray for them to feel unconditional love from us and their Heavenly Father. I pray for Godly friends who make Godly choices. I pray for their future spouses, that God will keep them safe and help them to be who God created them to be. But most of all I pray above all else, that our kids will Love God and Love their Neighbor.

The truth is, none of us are innocent. We were all born into a sinful world. If we don't do our job though and be proactive in their training, in their education, in their relationships, in our relationships with them, in their spiritual lives, we will reap what we sow. I often say, there are children who come up and there are children who are brought up. When the day comes that we realize we can't go back, it is ours to just love them unconditionally and to point them to Jesus. In reality, they really aren't ours anyways, they are just given to us on loan.