I know of a couple whose daughter disappeared from home in a fit of rebellion on her 18th birthday. Her parents were devastated. For years, they didn’t know if she was alive or dead.
Early on, her mother made a simple decision. Every night – all night – she would turn on the porch light. It was an unspoken message to her daughter: “You’re always welcome home.”
Many nights, tears streamed down that mother’s face as she locked the front door, switched on the light, and prayed for her daughter.
What the mother didn’t know was that her daughter often parked down the street and would sit there for hours, staring at the porch light. She desperately wanted to come home, but she was afraid she’d caused her family too much pain.
Finally, six years after she’d walked out of her parents’ lives, she walked back in. The family’s reconciliation started at that moment, but the healing had begun years before – when a mother’s prayers and loving acceptance became a beacon of light that cut through the darkness and offered her daughter hope.
When your children are little, you can wrap them in your arms. When they grow up, sometimes all you can do is wrap them in your prayers. Your adult children might be physically out of your reach, but they’re never out of God’s reach. He invites us to partner with Him in their lives through prayer.
We’re talking about how God responds when we pray for our kids on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Trusting God with Your Adult Child.” Our guest is author Jodie Berndt, who’s written about her journey of learning to entrust her children to God in her book Praying the Scriptures for Your Adult Children: Trusting God with the Ones You Love.
In our conversation, she shares about simple prayers that changed her perspective on parenting and explains the impact God has made in her kids’ lives as a result.
Jodie says, “When I wasn’t getting the outcomes I desired and my child’s choices weren’t what I’d prayed for, God reminded me, ‘You’re trusting in an outcome. Trust in Me.’”
God can use your child’s bad decisions as a tool to reshape their lives. All of us are shaped in the valleys more so than on the mountaintops. I know that’s been true in my own life and in my kids’ lives.
Find the hope you need to trust God with your adult child by tuning in to our broadcast on your local radio station, online, on Apple Podcasts, via Google Podcasts, or take us with you on our free phone app.
And for more direction on this topic, you’ll enjoy Jodie’s book Praying the Scriptures for Your Adult Children: Trusting God with the Ones You Love, yours for a gift of any amount. Give us a call at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459) or visit our website for more information.
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