Life’s
Greatest Lessons
Someone
once said that there are two ways that we learn. The first is the lessons from wisdom. Read the book of Proverbs and you’ll see
Solomon’s words on how to avoid many of life’s difficulties. Often, you’ll hear him say, “The wise man
does this…the foolish man does that.” Better
to watch and learn from others that have blown it, than to have to experience
it firsthand.
The
second way we learn is from our mistakes. These can often be life’s greatest teaching
tools but equally the most painful.
Parents know all too well the feeling of wanting to protect their
children from wrong choices but knowing it’s not always possible.
In
her book, “Creative Correction,” Lisa
Whelchel-Cauble give great insight on the truth that we are always children,
learning from our perfect heavenly Father who is always teaching us from life’s
lessons.
“It
is in the face of failure that we can see redemption on the face of God. That is as true for a seven-year-old as it is
for a 70-year-old. God catches us, His
children, when we fall, no matter how old or young we are. And before He lifts us back up again, He
teaches us a lesson.
A
wise parent will let her children stumble and fall. (As an actress living far
from my family), my mom could have hopped on the first plane to California-and
she was often tempted to do so-but she knew I needed to work through my pain,
and that I couldn’t do it if she rescued me every time I was lonely. She knew I would learn a lot when I was on my
face before the Lord. I did. And I have found that to be true with my
children as well-literally.
One
week after Tucker got his braces off, I walked in the door to find his daddy
holding a bag of ice on what was left of his front tooth.
Before
I could even ask, Tucker blubbered, “Mommy, I know why this happened. Daddy told me not to hang on the basketball
rim, but I did anyway. Then I slipped
and fell on my face. I know this will
cost you a lot of money to get my tooth fixed, but it will have been worth it,
because I learned why it is so important to obey your parents.”
Sometimes
we just need to let our children fall.
And as I have discovered, they will learn from their stumbling. I’ll admit it’s not easy for me to see my
kids struggle. If I could have spared
them the pain, I would have. (Lord knows I’ve tried!) But now I’m glad I failed. I’m glad they failed. That pain has brought us all closer to God.
In
school, you only fail a test when you don’t know the answers. How do you find the answers? By looking them up! When our children fail, we can teach them to
look up-up at God-to find the answer. My
friend Myrene once told me, “Remember to teach your children to pray through
all conflicts, large and small. This
reminds them that it is ultimately God who shapes us into His image, not our
trying to be good enough. The more we
invite God into our children’s lives-from scraped knees to lost shoes to
science tests-the more our children will naturally turn to Him and develop
their own relationships with Him.” Whether through God’s lessons that helps us
avoid challenges or His lessons that we learn in the midst of them, He is
always there to draw us close to His heart.
Terry
Risser
Copyright
2014
Consider reading the Word today:
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