Lord, as parents, it is very hard to make children do things they refuse to do. Parents are faced with the easy choice of pleasing their children or making them do what is best for them and listening to their cries, moans and groans.
When I was young, my Mom and Dad made me do things I rebelled against doing.
On one such occasion as I entered my freshman year, I was forced to attend a Cy-Fair High School dance. Mom said she would not allow me to miss the dance. Not being able to dance was no excuse. It was important for me to meet and greet my fellow students coming in from Dean and Arnold Junior Highs.
I was recovering from back surgery and had a body cast. If I went to the dance, it would be on a stretcher.
I was mortified when my Father and my brother, Charles, carried me into the Gymnasium on that stretcher. I felt like a beached whale as they set both ends of the stretcher on two folding chairs in the gym.
Years later, the curse of that moment of being forced by my parents to do things against my will, like so many others, became bountiful blessings and lessons to live and love by.
Many students came by to say hello and ask how I was doing. On that August evening I met students who became life-long friends.
Below the streamers which hung from the walls of the gym and the crepe-papered rims of the basketball goals, one sweet girl, Linda Wichkoski, sat with me for most of the evening. Years later, I realized how much she wanted to make me feel comfortable and how she probably felt as out of place and as insecure as I.
God, I thank you for my parents and other parents who make their children do things they do not want to do.
Because of my parents forcing me to do things against my will, I learned lessons which have helped me navigate life. The lesson that life still needs to be lived after loss, injury, or illness. One cannot crawl under a rock or stay in a shell like a turtle. God, You surely want us to have the courage and strength to overcome the urge to withdraw or isolate ourselves from others.
Lord, please help all parents to have the backbone, strength, and wisdom to force their kids to do things they do not want to do. Amen.
If you like this prayer, please share.
If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.
Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full service firm in Houston, Dallas and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.