Those Changing Years

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 6
 
“When He was twelve years old.” Luke 2:42
While your children are young, you cuddle them in your arms. As your son grows, he may no longer want to cuddle up to you. It hurts since your heart has not changed.
Where is he? You may have no way of knowing his inward thoughts. Maybe he sits across the table from you or maybe he is happy at someone else’s table. You may look for him among your kinsfolk and acquaintances, but he is not there.
This is a hard time in parent-life, but it is good to recognize it as a time of change in your child’s life. You begin to see his need to make certain decisions that you used to make for him.
It’s good to look at the perfect Boy in Luke 2, who acted independently of Joseph and Mary and lingered in Jerusalem. Where? In the temple. They sought Him anxiously, and although they had only missed Him one day, it took three days to find Him. And they totally failed to understand the reason for His absence.
Rebuking your child for his seeming independence may hinder his proper gowth. Let his relationship with God be beyond your understanding. Tell God your problem and find that in His presence you are nearer, eternally nearer to your child than you ever were in person.
Your child must still be subject to you, (you will notice that Jesus returned to Nazareth and was subject to His parents), but you also need to be more dependent on the Lord than ever before so that your direction might be in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no “How to” book that will guide you here, and is it not better, far better, that God Himself should be your Guide? The importance of example is vital, the example of reality in my life, not only for my child’s sake, but because God wants me close to Himself.
We mothers are to submit to our husbands and to God, not as a showpiece for our children but because God says so. Our life is the example that our children see every day. If Christ is our object, everything else falls into place.