It’s Hard to Watch Our Kids Struggle

Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. Deuteronomy 8:5

I wrote yesterday about how God has used my trials to shape me. Though it was miserable at the time, I can now look back on my addiction and see how God used it to grow and transform me. In fact, I can now be thankful for my addiction. Still, I don’t want to ever go through it again and it would be horrible if I had to watch my own children struggle with addiction as I once did. As their father, I desire the good life for them. I want them to be happy and healthy and I don’t want them to encounter any painful trials. To hope and pray however, that they never experience any discomfort or struggle, isn’t realistic or even healthy. As God disciplined me through my trials, so too will he shape my kids through theirs.

Today’s passage reinforces this idea of God as a loving father who carefully disciplines his children for their own good. In it, Moses reminded the Israelites that God allowed, or even caused them to be hungry and then fed them, so that they learned to rely on and to follow him. While their bellies were full, the Israelites didn’t see their need for God. It was only in their hunger that they turned to God, seeking him and his will. God used their discomfort to teach them faith and obedience.

Every morning, as I pray for my family, it’s tempting to ask God to protect them from every trial and discomfort. Again though, that’s not realistic or healthy. Instead, I force myself to pray that God would use our life trials to reveal to us our need for him. I pray that in our need, we would desperately turn to God so that he may work out his will in our lives. As a parent, it’s hard to watch my kids struggle, but I can’t eliminate all trials in their lives. What I can do is model for them what to do in times of trial. I can pray for them, that they would turn to God in the tough times. And I can – and hopefully have – teach them to seek God and his will during their struggles.