Reflections of...Direction!

       "Nana and sweet Cali-- life is so easy at this stage!"

         Reflections Of…direction!

                                 by Alan P. Scaglione

What do you do… when you can’t do nothin’?

And for our English majors out there, I meant to say nothin’!
Sometimes “nothin” just sums it up.
Ever been in a situation where it seems like there is nothing you can do to make the situation better.
Or better yet, ever have someone you love in one of those situations and you are unable to help them get out of it?
Now that’s the definition of helpless—having your child in a situation that you cannot help them out of.
I know I am not the only parent who has felt this, from time to time.
We have 6 children, all of them adults, at this point.
All of them paying their own bills, making their own decisions.
And we are thankful that they are self-sustaining financially.
But sometimes, it just seems like…the bigger they are, the bigger the problem they encounter.
And the less we as parents can do to help our child out of the situation.
And some situations—just appear to be help-less!
Life just seemed so much easier when they were younger.
They had a cough, you gave them some medicine.
They had a need, you filled it.
Now—their cough is too deep and their need is too big!
And as a parent, you feel like you can’t do nothin’!
And that—that’s the worst feeling in the world.
No matter how old they get—they are still your little baby.
You forever want to make their world better, make the problem go away, make life the best it can be.
That just seemed so much easier when we were talking about scrapes, shoes and scenery.
I have known parents who have had to watch their child go to jail—not able to fix the problem and make it go away.
I have known parents who have had to deal with cancer in their child—not able to make it go away and disappear.
I have known parents who have had to accept that their soon to be adult child would not be able to live on their own.
I know there are times when—you have done your best to do your best—but it’s just not going away.
Sometimes—you gotta STAND!
Yep—I said Stand!
The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12 “Having done all to stand…STAND!”
I was a youth pastor for about 15 years—and this was our theme scripture for most of the youth groups I led.
It was a basic foundational teaching that I needed the teenager to understand.
“Sometimes--- you gotta stand, having done you can do, just stand, ‘cause you know HE’ll pull you through!”
Those are the words to a song I wrote back then.
I would teach them that—there will be times in life when you have done everything you can and still… it does not fix the problem.
In those situations, when you have done everything and still something is not right—you just STAND!
STAND on the promise!
STAND in the gap!
STAND in place!
STAND and SEE GOD WORK!
There’s an old line that goes “When God closes a door, look for a window!”
But that is NOT CORRECT!!!!
When God closes a door—WAIT ON HIM to open another door!
Sometimes—He needs you to know—that YOU need HIM!
I had a really good conversation with one of our 6 kids recently.

They said “I have to admit, if I wasn’t going through this right now, I would not be relying so much on the Lord—maybe He needs me to learn how much I need HIM! Maybe this is a lesson on understanding that I cannot do this without Him! I have never been closer than I am now, and I have never understood more that God needs us to rely on Him, not on ourselves, but rely on HIM!”

 I could not have said it better myself!

So parents…when you can’t do NOTHIN’… just STAND!

 Brother “A”

Send me an email—just as simple as selecting the link—Share your Reflections with me!

When did YOU take a STAND??