Lessons

At our house we love The Andy Griffith Show. There is one episode where Andy is allowing his son, Opie, to learn a hard lesson. Andy makes Opie pay for a window he broke. Andy could have paid for it, but he chose to let Opie learn a lesson.

I think as a parent it is one of the hardest thing to do. Letting your child learn a lesson the hard way when we could bail him or her out.

But the hardest thing to do it to watch your child suffer something, and you are hopeless to help them. Whether it is consequences of their own behavior or something that just happened to them, if we as parents can’t fix it, it hurts.

No one can answer why. Why we have pain in this world, except to say this isn’t Heaven yet. satan is in control of this world and inflicts as much terror and pain as he can while he can. God lets him to His will to make us stronger and more reliable on Him.

I also think we as parents have to sometimes watch our kids suffer because that’s what God did. For us. He watched His only Son hang on that cross and die. For us. He watched Jesus suffer. Oh, they both could have stopped it. Either one could have said ENOUGH! and ended it. But they didn’t. For us!

God as our Father could stop any of our suffering, but He doesn’t stop it all. It is for our own good to learn a lesson the hard way just like we sometimes have to with our own kids.

Next time you are praying for help to God for yourself or your child, remember He watched His Son suffer and He’s watching us suffer too. Doesn’t mean He doesn’t care. Maybe He’s letting us learn a lesson the hard way so we can grow and mature and rely more on Him.