PARENTING: FINISH THE JOB -- Devotional for May 16, from "Good Seeds"

Jesus went back home to Nazareth with His parents. And as He continued in subjection to them, He kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:51-52)

Regarding a child’s training regimen, timing is everything. Some young people find the home they grew up in so comfortable and the food and fellowship provided by their parents so enjoyable that they feel no compunction to move out. That magic threshold in late teens, after graduation but before marriage or steady employment, comes and goes for these youngsters (If they noticed it at all, it was little more than a bump in the road!) This “failure to launch,” as family therapists call it, postpones indefinitely the normal experiment of the next generation to make their own living and find their own life. More common is the opposite extreme of timing where a child desires or insists on leaving home way before the time. He’s far from ready to be emancipated, as huge gaps in his training still remain. Sometimes this is just motivated by normal youthful eagerness and self-confidence, but all too often a child is forced to make a premature exodus by an abusive or otherwise miserable home environment. There’s no fancy psychological term for this, it’s just plain old “running away from home.” In either case, the timing is off and the plane is headed for a crash before it even clears the runway. When we were making a move to another state, our youngest was going to have to start in a new high school – in her senior year, no less – where she wouldn’t know anyone. She cleverly worked it out with a girlfriend to live with her family for that year so she wouldn’t have to suffer this traumatic change. She had no idea we’d resist her creative plan. I remember telling her, “Heidi, it’s not that I don’t think you would be fine, but if we did this we would be skipping our last year of parenting and your last year of training, which very well may be the most important part of your development.” Well, I’m happy to report that she followed in the footsteps of Jesus and continued in subjection to her parents for that last year (see verse 51), in a new home in a new state in a new school, with new friends materializing soon enough! And as we look at her now we see a flower in full bloom: a faithful wife of a loving husband, a skillful mother of four darlings, and still making new friends and keeping the old ones with the greatest of ease and expertise! But the BEST part of all is to see how “the Jesus way” (see verse 2) is still playing out in her life, for she continues, day by day, to keep growing mentally, bodily, spiritually, and socially. There’s a lesson here: Parents, finish your job! Kids, let them! Do it the “Jesus way” and you can’t go wrong!