We try diligently to bring our children up in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.”  But sometimes in our quieter moments we wonder if they only heard words, or if the warnings given will actually be practiced when they fly the nest.  The following is a lesson my oldest son never forgot.

“Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.”    Proverbs 22:6

He went to work immediately after graduation for a nursery and attended junior college.  We taught him not all people he met in life, whether at school or work were companions he should associate on a social basis, and when he was through with his work,  go home, get his lessons, attend the services of the Lord, enter into activities with the Lord’s people and rest.

He was not on his own very long when the test came.  He and I “locked horns” several times in his growing up years.  I used to tell him he was as the slogan from Missouri.  “The Show Me State.”  All children are certainly individuals and my oldest tested me frequently.

Late one afternoon we received a call from him telling us he was planning on going with a young man from work to visit some of the young man’s friends.  I remember telling him he needed to go home and get his studies and rest, and though he liked the young man, he had no idea the kind of friends he had.  He didn’t like my admonishment very much, and as I hung up the phone, I wondered if he listened or would do as he chose and not heed the warning.

It was a lesson to me as well.  There comes a time when the teaching ends and you have to let go, and pray with all your heart the lessons were learned and hidden within their hearts, for the tests do come not just for our children, but for all of us.  It’s one thing to teach the principle, but quite another to actually be placed in situations where choices are to be made and whether we choose to follow Him, or the world.

It wasn’t long after he got off work from the nursery that eventful day that we received another phone call.  I could hear sadness and shock in his voice.

The young man with whom he wanted to go after work was shot.  A fight broke out with one of his so-called friends over a girl.  My son’s acquaintance died.

I remember him telling us he was thankful for having listened and went home to get his studies and rest.  Had he been with the young man, I might have been writing a far different story.

My son was pall bearer at the funeral of his friend and he told us later how very sad the funeral was.  It was a most tragic situation.  A young man’s life, a girl, a life cut short, grieving parents. There are many lessons here. This lesson was certainly brought home to my son.

“It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting:  for that is the end of all men;  and the living will lay it to his heart.”    Ecclesiastes 7:2

And isn’t this the way we all are?  We read the instructions of our Lord in Scripture, and then the test comes.  Will we follow through with His teaching, or will we handle things our own way?

I have learned and I am still learning, to pray and trust Him in all I do.  Some days I want to handle all by myself.  I have found it doesn’t work.  All I do goes before Him.  Every decision goes to Him.  All my concerns, all my sadness, all happiness, all gratefulness goes before Him.  It is one of the greatest blessings known to the faithful child of God.  We can approach His throne with boldness and lay out all of our heart before Him.  He will answer in His own time and own way.  This I believe with all of my heart.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”    Hebrews 4:16

May we always listen to His instruction and pray, then follow through with His will and not seek our own.  The decisions may very well, as in the case of my son save your life physically as well as spiritually.

“He spoke of life with a slow southern drawl.  But I never heard him ’cause I knew it all.  But I sure listened when I got the call.  That he was no longer there. 
Lessons learned and they sure run deep.  They don’t go away and they don’t come cheap.  There’s no way around it.  ‘Cause this world turns on lessons learned.”

Eileen Light