Leaving Home

Leaving Home

7/15/17

Every parent at some time will face the fact that their child will leave the confines of their house and venture out on their own. While we may put on a happy dance face and proclaim our freedom we all sit back and worry about the safety of our children knowing what is out in the world and all that could affect their lives when they encounter such experiences.  It is easy for us to think about God and how He was pained when His Son was crucified and then sent into hell to capture the keys of death and what separation it had on God, but do we routinely keep in mind what occurred to Adam and Eve when their separation occurred and how it must have hurt God as well?  This is a parental concern that not only we have but one that God continues to have today as He watches His beloved Creations walk aimlessly without knowing who He is and what His desires are for our lives.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I sat on the football field of the town’s local high school and proudly watched as our last daughter walked up to the stage and received her diploma.  It was a moment of mixed emotions for while it was a sense of accomplishment for the both of us we also could not ignore the fact that within a few more weeks she would be leaving our house to go to college.  This past weekend, our youngest daughter began her moving out process and even though she is only moving twenty miles down the road it was still very hard for her mother and me to watch unfold.  We participated in her move as much as possible while keeping our eyes dry not letting on that it was killing us inside to watch her grow up and continue her life.  Yes, it was painful but it is time that we have to let her fly and to become the godly woman she has been taught to be.

As we were coming back into town, we stopped off and bought some local produce for us to have for dinner that evening and then went up towards where the old high school football stadium once stood.  As we approached the hill to go up the small hill, I told my wife that it seemed just like yesterday that our oldest daughter walked along that grass to receive her diploma, the last graduating class to walk in that stadium.  Now, our youngest was graduated and it was now time to allow her to leave the protection of our house and for her to step foot into the world, basically on her own.  We have always told all of our girls that God is in control of their lives and that as long as they place Him first in their lives He will be faithful and just to guide them as long as they and their families draw breath.  However, with this promise in their heart and in ours, it is still frightening to think about what she will face without being in the security area of her original home.

It is very disappointing to hear that not every child grows up in a secure and loving home and that they are exposed to grossly devalued lives and standards at a very young age.  I wish that every child could experience a godly home that provides values good enough to prepare them to combat the world instead of joining the combat with the world.  Over the years, my girls have had many friends that have come from broken homes with some being violent and completely disgraceful on all levels, a sign that even this country has fallen away enough to destabilize the basic form of living, the common household.  It scares me to watch as today’s societies promote such breakups and sub standard living yet scream and cry that their problems exist because of others and not what they have developed. 

We fail to recognize and then understand exactly what the root of our problems are and when we try and fix these problems on our own they explode exponentially and many cannot be contained in any manner.  The wildfires of rebellion are popping up almost daily with a new logo of fight that has only followed a previously established pattern, one that we also refuse to control and eternally fix but allow for fueling themselves with non-action.  Many would say that that this type of activity only occurs in the big cities and has not infiltrated into the small communities of our nation but that statement and belief is inaccurate.  Many of the statistics that define the “issues” of our nation are strictly confined to the cities but are ignored in the smaller communities which skew the truth on all levels.  It is these missed statistics that worry small town parents when they send their children off into the unknown and terrifies the parents of the children of the “city” communities for they readily see and hear of what goes on around them.  How have we as the nations’ nation fallen so far down that we cannot provide a safe haven of study for the children of our families?

A parent never stops worrying about their children even when they are still living at home and while the living conditions may not always be the best being at home provides a little more security than being out on your own.  I knew this when I went to college and the university that I went to was also approximately twenty miles up the road, the settings, freedoms, and further opportunities immediately present themselves as distractions to what the overall goals should be.  It is these pitfalls and uglier ones that may come their way that brings the greatest concerns for our watchful eyes cannot always be over them to protect them when such enemies arrive.  But as many of us know that even though our children are at home the dangers of the world still have a tendency to creep into our homes through the doors that we voluntarily open for ourselves and the cycled loop grows and spins faster.  What is most troubling is that when we look back at all of the previous societies in human history we cannot find one that exemplifies any other type of presentation which means that every program, thought, or process humanity has tried to correct such inadequacies has failed.

What is more disheartening is that we do have one society that gives us a picture of how perfection works and how it is to live within this type of purity, but this society was disabled due to the concepts of a selfish gratitude that was directly mounted against the perfect setting.  When the book of Genesis opens we have the beautiful painting of a world being written day by day and as each evening and morning passed we have a new creative setting that was completed with eternal perfection.  We also see that the Creator Himself personally oversaw each detail and through His words of perfection proclaimed each day complete.  As with any parent God understood that He could not forcibly keep Adam and Eve under His thumb and demand that they follow his Word, but that they had to make that choice for themselves.  Oh, how God must have wished for Adam and Eve to stay within His confines and Ways for as long as they did He knew that there could not be anything or anyone touch them and send them on their way from His presence.

In Genesis Chapter 3, we see Adam and Eve walking down the graduation stage and choose to make their own way in the world instead of heeding to the ways and laws of God.  A moment in God’s heart that must have been eternally shaken for He knew even before their creation that if they ever chose to leave His Ways that they would be forced from the perfect and protected state that only He could have provided.  As the moment drew to the time when their talks would continue, God knew what had occurred and He had no choice but to proceed with the consequences of their actions.  In no way, did God want to push them from the perfect state that He had made for them but through their own choices He had no choice in the manner.

I know that when my youngest finally leaves the house there might be days that my eyes will not be able to see my creation and that thought pains me deeply.  In many ways, I have been selfishly ignoring my parents and their sights as well, for they live just a few minutes away and sometimes it too is days before they lay eyes on me.  When a child leaves the confines their home, parents’ hearts begin to race and go into a continual worrying mode, it is hard for me not to worry about my girls, for they are my life but I know I must watch them grow and mature into their own adulthoods just as God has to watch us grow with or without Him and having His Ways alive in our hearts.  It is hard for our hearts to fathom the possible eternal separation from God completely but if it is anything like how parents feel when their children leave the house to be on their own it is an unimaginable pain to endure.

God has provided us the perfect gift and tool to teach our children to be prepared for their encounters with the world.  However, we have found numerous ways for them to discourage this perfect tool and to seek out flawed and varied methods of teaching instead.  No parent wants to see their child suffer in any ill manner due to adverse choices that are presented to them.  It does not matter if these ill settings occur in the form of no heat in the winter to being sentenced to life in prison for a capital crime, a parent wants the best for their child and as parents we need to be popular and friendly with our children but to lead them in such a way that they can see their enemy and fend him off before he has a chance to grab hold of their lives.  This is exactly what God provided for Adam and Eve yet they chose to defy His Ways and choose their own standards.  The influence they followed ended their household protection and sent them on their way to live out their choices.  God did everything He could to keep His Ways simple and pure but in the end, it was our choice to complicate the issue and succumb to the slavery that the world holds.

Every line of communication needs to be continued with our children when they walk out the door, for if we do not keep such communication it is assured that they will stray from the truth and accept their own experiences as gold.  The world shall NEVER provide our children with anything good for the world is defined by a defeated kingdom ruler who has the job of stealing your possessions from you and destroying them right before your eyes.  The most important type of communication that one can have with your children who have left your fold is to pray for them.  Prayer is the necessity that allows God to keep in touch with His children and if you teach your children to pray and to honestly and with a sincere heart speak to our Creator, He will be able to steer them from dangers that will occur.

While it was difficult to watch my older daughters walk out of the house and to embark on their lives and now throwing in my youngest into the same category, my wife and I do have the confidence that all of our girls know how to pray, they all have been taught the Word of God and who God is, and they know how to keep away from trouble and not to accept the world as their friend.  There will still be days and nights that we want to hear their voices and to see their bodies with our own eyes, there is nothing wrong with this for it is comforting to any parent who gets to see or hear their child on a routine basis.  More importantly, it is important that we ourselves visit our Heavenly Father as well for He does not want just a couple of days a week communication service He wants you to speak to Him every day and every night.  When we keep in constant contact with our earthly parents and accept their hounding over us as their way of adhering to God’s Ways, it makes things so much easier to understand when trials come our way.  The same occurs when we have this constant contact with God as well, for the spiritual and eternal battles we continually face will have a far greater effect on our lives if we do not understand what is going on and how to combat them.

In no way did God ever desire for His children to live away from under His protection, yet I thank Him every day that He provided us a way to be able to restore our lives in such a manner that we can experience God’s true gift of eternal life if we choose.  God has a specific and holy order that He follows and it is through this order of His that defines restoration and how we can accept such a miraculous process.  If God was haphazard or lazy in His Ways, this assurance of eternal salvation would not be worthy enough to talk about much less believe in.  Many times we doubt this truth about God and how much He cares for us with many of us leaving this earth’s walk without even knowing what lies beyond our last breath.  Church we cannot afford to sit back and watch the world advance and God be limited to just a few hours a week.  Look at what our world has become and look how our children are accepting this lousy way of life that is being offered to them like candy.  How can we say we are a live and functioning body when our numbers are declining and our spirituality is being sold to the lowest worldly bidder?  Daniel never once compromised his godly beliefs even when he was in captivity for 70 years.  Why do we have to accept the world and then pay for our choices down the road like the reason that Daniel was in captivity for such a long time?

The question remains of how we are living our lives at home and how we are protecting the dominion that God has given us to dress and keep.  We must understand that at some time in our lives our children will choose to leave our protection and enter into the world, but all the difference in the world it makes when they have been taught about the Word of God and the protective covering that it brings to their lives.  We are guilty of gross negligence when we send our kids into the world without the direct knowledge of how they need to protect themselves and Church you are just as much at fault as well you’re your sermons and teachings are world-centered and not Bible and God centered.  What we are providing our children is providing them with the example of how Adam and Eve lost their dominion instead of how God tried to teach them how to keep their dominion.  This pattern has to change immediately or it may be soon that we realize it is too late to turn back and save our nation from devastation.  What kind of procedure for leaving home do you want your child to take?  The Bible states and lays law that a man should leave his home and cleave to his wife so in this instance it is natural for humans to leave and forge out on their own, but never should we believe that God wants us to fade from His sight.

It does not matter if you have any children or not you are a child of God and He wants to have daily and direct contact with you. I know that with the schedules of lives it is difficult to see our family every day, but the anticipation that one shall hear the other’s voice at least carries us to the next day.  I know that this setting plays out every day in our world and that sometimes years pass before we lay eyes on our family or hear their voices but it is the belief that maybe tomorrow things will be different.  God waits for our lives to call out His name and there is no greater desire of His than the anticipation of hearing a child of His call out to Him.  Have we left home long enough to forget this truth about the one who created us?  God shall never ask you to leave His confines of His House or His holy protection, only our enemy tricks us into accepting this leaving home lie.  God cannot ever go against His Word but if we do not know His Word and what His Word means to our lives we will always be turning our heads and guessing with our confused hearts.

In physical terms this direct communication comes in many forms and can occur at any point in time during the day or night, so does the direct and personal communication with God.  All of us have been woken up at night for some reason and while we ponder why our physical bodies are awake how many of us pray?  When we are at work, or in the grocery store do we have a silent communication service with God, are we listening for His voice, would we even recognize it?  If our children can call us at any time with a need or concern why shouldn’t we feel the exact same way about God?  Why do we insist on going about things on our own, falling on our faces, and instead of trying God we lie on the ground and pitch a fit because we are hurt by something that caused us to stumble?  It is obvious we are calling out to the ground instead of the Creator.  We are from the ground which means we are flawed and this status shall not produce any result worthy of salvation, only the Creator of the ground can offer this truth, but we must be willing to listen to His voice for our instructions.

DLB