Growing Up In Their Gifts
As Christian Parents, it is our goal to not only raise our kids to be responsible adults, but that they love the Lord, and know the gifts and calling He has blessed them with.
I struggle with allowing my 16 year old to minister the way he believes he should. Not because I think he isn’t called to, but because I am his mom and I want him safe, and sound at home.
One calling Shawn believes he has, is evangelism. Dan and I see it too, but we want it controlled- by us. This is so wrong!
Shawn has a way of relating to people, and helping them open up. He makes friends easily and puts people at ease.
We recently had a HUGE challenge with this gift. He called at 10 the other night, and said “Mom, I am out for a walk and ran into a couple of drunk guys I am helping walk home.”
Not exactly what a mom wants to hear to 10pm.
I asked where he was, and said “I will come get you!”
He told me “No, I know what I am doing, I’llbe home soon.”
I talked to Dan, and we both let it go….until 10:45.
Then we decided that this was NOT a good thing, and we went looking for him. When he finally got home- at 11:30, we were not very happy with him.
He calmly told us he was ministering to these guys, and had to walk them to the house of the girl they were with. He heard the 2 boys (17 years old) saying how they were going to have sex with her, and what they were going to do when they got her home. Shawn wanted to make sure that didn’t happen.
Then he walked the guys down to town, and showed them where our local Subway is. He had opportunity to tell them about Jesus, and was very excited that he used his gift.
All I could say was “I want you to use your gifts, but be smart using them!”
This morning when I got up, I felt like the Lord was telling me that trusting Shawn is optional, but trusting Him was mandatory.
He gives gifts differing to all of us, and one of my big pet peeves with parents is that they (we) sometimes ignore the gifts our kids have, to the expense of their growth, and our letting them grow up in the Lord.
We must use discernement with our letting our kids go, the timing, the places we let them go, how fast we let them move. That doesn’t mean we should take it into our own hands though.
We need to be praying unceasingly, and trusting God to speak to us and give us the peace we need to not only let them go and grow, but to be the ones who encourage them to step out and grow.
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