photo: noah minton

abandon: cease to support or look after (someone); desert.  give up completely (a course of action, a practice, or a way of thinking).

How often do we feel abandoned by GOD or even those who love us, when they don’t do or say the things we want to hear?

Don’t we want to hear GOD say to us, “Yes, you can do whatever you want. It’s ok. I love you anyway.” That is the 2 year old in us speaking. GOD does love us unconditionally…no matter what we do. There is truth to that.

But those of us who are parents know that giving our children what they want is not always the best thing for them. Allowing them to go and do what makes them happy at any given moment will not make them happy over the long term.

Giving them unhealthy food all the time, not restricting their sleep and awake times, allowing them a life free of restrictions and homework? This will not develop them into responsible adults who will have careers and be productive members of their communities.        stop

We don’t think of the ways we support and care for our children as how we don’t abandon them, do we?

We don’t think of this as ways we support and look after them do we? We may provide a roof over their heads, but we abandon them when we fail to provide limits for them in terms of structure in their lives that set the tone for being adults. Learning to be responsible regarding money, time, eating of food, exercise, and our moral life…these are all ways we provide support and care for our children.

Often, we think we are not abandoning them when we provide a roof over their heads and give them what they want…including luxurious gifts at Christmas and for birthdays. The older I get, the more I realize that our ability to provide for our children when they grew up that did not include many luxuries their friends had, was not an abandonment. We did provide good educations for them. We all worked together on that. It meant a lot of things had to be passed by. But now I’m not nearly so sad as I was then.

We weren’t abandoned. GOD provided what we needed when we needed it. I worried more than I needed to. I wish I had prayed more for our needs and even wants than I did…and worried less.

I need to relearn this lesson now as I face new challenges. Worry less. Be careful, trust GOD, but worry less. GOD will not abandon you. He is ever faithful.

Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord,
    and whom you teach out of your law,
 to give him rest from days of trouble,
    until a pit is dug for the wicked.
 For the Lord will not forsake his people;
    he will not abandon his heritage;
 for justice will return to the righteous,
    and all the upright in heart will follow it.

Psalm 94:12-15

Welcome to FiveMinuteFriday. It’s a place where a group of us write for five minutes or so on a given word. No edits, no correcting…or very little. The results are very interesting and provide lots of variety! We learn a lot!