Volume 12, Issue 20: In Their Own Time

A friend of mine said something that got me thinking. Her twin boys have just finished their first year of University and she can tell that they are still struggling with the transition back to the States. They spent most of their early years in Ethiopia and in Kenya because of her work, and just recently relocated back to the States.

She said, "they will get there in their own time". That made me think of some of the things I contend over with my teenage children. There are ways I want them to think about things and do things that they haven't attained yet. I now appreciate that I need to accept that they are just not there yet.

I want my children to be enthusiastic in their walk with God. At church when people are dancing, they just stand there, singing along quietly. Almost every Sunday morning my son comes along when I go an hour early to church for me to take part in the prayer ministry, I appreciate that he doesn't complain having to go to church an hour before the service begins.

My son sits there as the adults pace around praying for various needs. And I pray for him, that through those moments of him siting there under the canopy of prayer, that God would give him an encounter with himself and cause him to show excitement about his walk with God. But now I accept that my children will get there in their own time, and in God's timing for them.

As I wish for my daughter to be more helpful around the house, to offer to do more than is required of her, I accept that she will get there in her own time. That I can't make her be who she is not yet at this point of her youth. But trust that as I guide and pray for her, she will get there.

I especially pray that our young people would want a more balance use of their down time. That they would not only be interested in entertaining themselves, being in front of a screen all day long. That they would limit their time on screens and balance their time between reading, playing, woking on something, learning a new skill, and so forth. But I have to accept that they will get there in their own time.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi