“In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.” Psalm 18:6 (KJV)

As parents, we sometimes think that because our children are grown and out of the house, the heavy lifting is over. It’s now time to sit back and relax, waiting to enjoy time with the grandchildren and impart words of wisdom to our children and their spouses. Well, maybe in a perfect world that will happen, but in real life, not so much.

As parents of adult children, we can look back over the years and see where we did our best in raising them by God’s grace and with His help; trying to teach them good moral values, and laying a sound spiritual foundation for them to build upon. Yet, there are moments when we find ourselves wondering if it was enough; if we did everything we could have done.

In my ‘About’ page I mentioned that my son was very stubborn and strong-willed as a child. Added to that, he was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of eight which made it even more of a struggle, to not only raise him as a single parent, but to keep him focused on a Godly path. The school visits, Individual Education Plans and parent-teacher’s conferences were endless, not to mention the prayers sent up on his behalf, many times mingled with tears.

Over the years I’ve seen the Lord change him in so many ways, and he has come quite a long way from the stubborn child he used to be back then. However, he still hasn’t fully surrendered his life to the Lord, and there are times when his floundering, missteps and poor judgement leave me cringing. I’m filled with a desire to jump in and fix things or simply go off on a rant, but I have to remind myself that he’s an adult now, responsible for his own decisions and life choices. They may not always be choices that I agree with, but I have to let him make them.

The Lord in His wisdom reminded me though, of all those prayers I prayed back in the turbulent years of my son’s life. The ones I lifted in earnest when he was eight, and his teachers didn’t know what else to do to keep him focused and settled in the classroom; the ones that came from the depths of my soul in the middle of the night during the rebellious teen years; and the ones I prayed as he entered adulthood and seemed to be drifting along aimlessly. Those prayers were the ones that not only sustained me, but brought my son to the place where he is today. The Lord reminded me that they’re the very same prayers I needed to continue lifting on his behalf now.

There are two women in the Bible who always provide me with a source of strength and comfort whenever I feel despondent about my son’s salvation and direction in life. One is Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 1, and the other is the widow woman in Luke chapter 18 who brought her request before the ungodly judge. In 1 Samuel, Hannah’s determination to keep on praying even though she still hadn’t conceived a child, always encourages my soul; even though she was being mocked by her adversary day after day, she never stopped praying. Likewise, the widow in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 was so persistent, so relentless in her asking, that she wore the judge down completely until he finally gave in to her requests.

This is the kind of persistence that we need in going before the Lord on behalf of our adult children. Even though we might be feeling discouraged by what we’re seeing in their lives right now, (As Hannah probably was) the end goal is not just to see them accomplish lofty goals here on earth, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36 (KJV) but it’s to see them inherit the kingdom of heaven at the end of this life, and it’s the main reason why we need to continue praying toward this end.

Some days it may seem that the more you pray the worse things become. You may feel like your hands are tied, and nothing you do or say fazes them. For some, your kids may not even be speaking to you right now. But don’t give up hope; prayer is the one weapon in your spiritual arsenal that reaches them no matter how far they go or how old they get.

Continue to water the seed you planted in their lives during the younger years, it’s still there even though what you’re seeing now doesn’t seem to align with that. The Sunday School, the Bible lessons, the memory verses, trust that they have taken root in their early years, and that you can go back to the blueprint of the prayers you labored over them when they were younger. Prayers that still have the power to effect change in them as adults, because you’re praying to the same God and He never changes, He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6 (KJV)