Freedom To Choose

Do you feel like that sometimes?
Is it any wonder, when you spend your day thinking for more people than yourself?
My husband and I give our boys choices. When they were small, they could choose oatmeal or granola for breakfast. But as they matured, they were given more freedom.
As their ability to make wise (or not) choices grew, so did my prayer life. By the time they became teenagers and young adults entering life, the decisions they made were life-changing, could destroy or add to their life in huge ways.
I could be one of those controlling mothers who made their decisions for them. But did I want to think for them for the rest of their lives? Didn’t I have trouble thinking clearly for what I needed to do?

But nor do I like feeling helpless.

Then I thought of God. He made Adam and Eve. He gave them only one thing not to do. Don’t eat of the Tree of Good and Evil. He didn’t hover. He didn’t make them obey. He gave them a choice. And the freedom to disobey.
They certainly choose. But it wasn’t for their best.
And it did have grave consequences.
God allow them to choose.
He loved them that much.
If God loved His created son enough to allow the freedom to make bad decisions, shouldn’t I?
He didn’t change the consequences. Nor manipulate the situation so they wouldn’t hurt so much when they chose poorly.
He loved them enough to let them suffer through their consequences.
But nor did He turn His back on them.
He provided redemption.
Again, it wasn’t forced on them.
He waited.

When they finally decided to ask, (again it was their choice), He had a plan that would bring them back into fellowship with Him.
Isn’t that the very reason God created him…to know Him?
So we see the choice is ours to make, just like our children.
When we allow our children the freedom to live their lives, they don’t fly the coop and never come back…they soar like eagles, how God meant for them. And sometimes they come back to rest and we experience a pride that we allowed them to become who God wanted them do be. Made for Him.

My soaring days seem over. Maybe even a permanently exhausted pigeon can still sit on her roost and watch her little brood soar, and experience a fluttering in her heart that God is known better. 

I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
               Sonya Contreras

Child Training
Find other Articles on Child Training
Here:
Using Stories To Discipline
Are You Being Challenged?
Making Your Child Obey
The Test
Do You Have Ugly Kids?
Do You See the Project or the People?
Are You the Child or the Parent?
Church Time and Quiet Time
Are You a Helicopter Parent?
Controlling the Angry Child
Stages of Parental Control
Homeschooling Myths Debunked
Preparing My Sons for Marriage
Trust and Obey
Made To Work
Holding Onto Truth
Letting Go of the Little Boy
Are You Patient?
How Do You Love Your Child?
Raising the Impossible Child
Premises for Child Training
Teen Trials
Preteen Trouble
A Place To Call Your Own:
Instilling Ownership in Your Child
The Why, When and How of Child Training
Freedom To Choose
Eight Don'ts of Discipline
Ten Do's of Discipline
To Have a Hamster To Hold: A Case Study in Discipline
Just the Facts, Ma'am
Time Out or Restoration
Training for Truth
Look What I Can Do?
Where's the Box
Finding Your Child's Gifts
Developing Your Child's Gifts
Dear Master of a Godly Child
Keeping the Tradition Going
Sleep--It's for Your Brain
What Baseball Teaches about Life
What's for Dinner?
What's the Value of a Dollar, Part 1
What's the Value of a Dollar, Part 2

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Tell of My Kingdom's Glory
Three Book Series