I was reminded today about an article that I read some years back about a mom and a wayward son.  The mom talked about how each day she would “carry her son to the Foot of the Cross” and pray “Lord fix my son”… “Lord fix my son”.  And then she would dutifully pick up her son and walk away.

The Lord spoke to her one day as she once again carried her son to the Foot of the Cross…  “I can’t fix him if you keep taking him away”.  It was then that she knew that she was begging God to fix her son, yet she didn’t leave him there long enough for God to do it.  She knew that she was going to have to leave her son at the Cross and trust that God was going to work a miracle in that boy’s life. 

Mike and I know that there is nothing that we can say or do that is going to make John give us his evil habits and turn his life around.  If John was going to be “fixed” then only God and John were going to make it happen. 

I decided that it might be good to see if we could find a devotional or a book of meditations for a recovering drug addict.  I wish I could say that John is a Christian, but he is not.  So I didn’t want something “heavy”, but something to give him hope.  Something for him to read and ponder in his day.  So off to the Christian bookstore we go.  We did find a book of Men’s Meditations.  Later that night, we gave the book to John.  He did tell us the next day that he read some of it.  We’ll Praise God for that.  Baby steps right now… just baby steps.

While we were at the bookstore, I picked up a book by Stormie Omartian — “The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children”  Oh what a blessing!    I am barely 10 pages in and the author talks about how we, as parents, have to pray and ask God for wisdom.  To show us what to do, or not do, for our adult children.  We have to seek God for how to pray for them.  To seek clarity and discernment to know when to just pray and let HIM work in their lives without any other help from us.  Only God knows the right thing to do.  And this line I love…  “And only when you have released your adult child completly into God’s hands and put the Lord in charge can you have true peace.” 

I know why I was sent to the bookstore today.  Not to find a devotional or mediation for John.  But to confirm to me that HE is in control of all of this.  HE is going to work out this mess.  HE is going to bring that child out of this darkness.  “We all need to understand that we can’t “fix” or “change” our adult children.  Only God can make changes that last in anyone.  Our job is to release our adult chilren into God’s hands and then pray for the Lord to make changes in them and the lives according to His will” (“The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children – Page 11)

Thank you Lord that You ARE in charge of all of this!