What to Do When Children Leave the Faith

When children leave the faith we love, it is often difficult to separate our responsibility from their response. Scripture is full of great parents with less-than-obedient kids. As parents, we are responsible for doing what we know is correct, but the yoke of our kids’ choices doesn’t rest on our shoulders. 

In this podcast, I give you some grace, freedom, and strategies for keeping your focus on God during parenting –  even when our kids are making choices apart from Him – and challenge you to give up control and let God do the work of pursuing them back to His heart.

As parents, we are responsible for doing what we know is right, but the yoke of our kids’ choices doesn’t rest on our shoulders.  Their growth (or lack thereof) isn’t solely dependent on our parenting wins and losses. God’s Word clearly states that we plant and cultivate, but he alone makes faith grow (1 Cor 3:7).  My parenting failures are never beyond the reach and redemption of the Perfect Parent.  As Jim Burns writes in Doing Life With Your Adult Children:  It may be too late for prevention, but it’s never too late for redemption.

I pray you find some truths to cling to as you listen to the full episode. Also, I pray you will extend the same grace to yourself that God extends to you. Looking back, you most likely did your best with what you knew. Remember hindsight is 20-20! So let’s entrust our kids, grandkids, and friends’ outcomes to the Author, who is never finished writing a story until his child comes home.

Scripture used in this episode:
Luke 18:1-8
Hebrews 11
Psalm 119
John 6:68
Ephesians 3:20

A great book with some insight into this topic is Doing Life With Your Adult Children by Jim Burns. I highly recommend it!

Want to read more? Check out these related blog posts:
When Children Abandon Family Values
Prodigal Mom