This morning during
my AWG time the Spirit of the Lord taught me or perhaps reminded me of a simple
truth that has stuck with me all day. I
pray that for all the other parents out there, especially other first timers
into the season of college life like me, I pray that the Comforter will comfort
you as He did me through His word below:
A few days ago, I
started to reread the Gospel of Mathew.
This morning's reading was chapter 4.
As I opened up my Bible I found several verses that I had highlighted at
some point but this morning verse 22 stuck out to me for the first time. The few verses prior teach us that Jesus had
called Peter and his brother Andrew to follow Him and shortly thereafter He
called John and James to do the same. In
verse 22, the Holy Spirit records how James and John the "brothers of
thunder" respond to Jesus' invitation to follow Him.
"Immediately
they left the boat and
their father, and followed Him"
Matthew 4:22
Anyone who has asked
me about my oldest leaving for college knows how much of a challenge this new
season of life has been for me. Although
the Lord granted me peace over this a few months ago it's still not easy to
think about… the idea of my "little
baby" no longer living with the rest of our family most of the time is
something that I can't yet grasp. As I
read and then highlighted verse 22 this morning, the Lord reminded me of an
important truth through these three little words "and their father"
that Matthew recorded. The more that I
thought about this phrase today, the more obvious the point became. You see,
Jesus had hand picked his first disciples. He had great plans for these men. They would see things that others would never
see, hear things that others would never hear BUT there was a condition to all
this. These young men not only had to
follow Jesus but they also had to leave the lives that they were used to AND
their father in order to do so. So
what's my point?
This morning the
Lord reminded me through the example of this nameless dad that this same
situation will come into the lives of every parent that has a son or daughter
that follows Jesus. There will come a
point in the lives of these young adults when Jesus will call them away from
their parents to follow Him. He already
has great plans for them (Eph 2:10)
Things that only He can show them.
Things that only He can teach them.
Places only He can take them.
Their job in all this is to obediently follow Jesus. Our job as parents is to trust the One who
called them to follow and then like the nameless father of James and John…. to
simply let them go.
"for I know
whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have
entrusted to Him" 2 Timothy 1:12