As a parent, at some point you will be confronted with your inability to rescue your child from the pain of their decisions or the pain of this world. You’ve spent every minute of your parenting life believing that if you were a good enough parent, you could prevent certain things from happening to your kids. But you didn’t prevent it; you couldn’t prevent it. And here you are – overwhelmed with feelings of powerlessness.

In Proverbs there is a caution against flatter, but affirmation isn’t flattery. Flattery is when words are used to manipulate someone; affirmation is for the sake of the hearer and is so powerful. We have so many negative tapes that are being played in our heads that we get lost in a world of shame and doubt and desperately need affirmation. We are so thirsty for genuine affirmation and so are the kids.

This is the message to our children: We are not going to find meaning outside of an abiding, intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Satisfaction is not going to happen without Jesus.
However God leads our children, however they are gifted, however life turns out – marriage, jobs, locations – if Jesus isn’t the center of their universe, they are sunk. Cheap and empty pleasures will not satisfy; only He can!

The state of humanity cannot be remedied through information or education. The Bible makes that very clear; there is nothing that rivals the Word of God in understanding the heart of man. Beginning in the Book of Genesis and throughout the entire Bible, it is taught that man is born a sinner. No child is born morally neutral; every person enters the world as a child of Adam, with a sin nature that needs little time and no encouragement to manifest itself.

Our parenting is handicapped in many instances because we have so much unresolved junk in our own hearts that Jesus wants to heal. Jesus wants you to trust in Him with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. What step can you take today?