I recently sat at a coffee shop table with a friend and chatted about the challenges of parenting tweens and teens. We shared areas where we were making decisions that are unpopular with our kids and encouraged each other to stay the course.
When you’re the one facing the eye-rolling and disgusted sighs of a child whose happiness you care about, you’ve got to cling to this basic truth: you know what’s best for your child. You know more than she does. She doesn’t understand how you could possibly be acting in her best interest, but you’ve got 20-30 more years of experience in this world, and you are qualified to make some decisions in her life.
I like to think I’m mature than my kids, but there are times that I want to do more than just roll my eyes at God. “I don’t get it!” I cry out in my pain and confusion. “How could this possibly be Your plan?”
God’s Word gently reminds me that my heavenly Father is qualified to rule over my days:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Even when we don’t understand His ways, we can have confidence in His goodness and love toward us in all that He does. The Bible tells us about one more aspect of God’s character that is higher than the heavens. Psalm 103:11 says, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.”
These are two things our finite human minds can’t fathom: God’s ways and God’s steadfast love. When we don’t understand what He’s doing, we can trust that His actions flow from a heart of steadfast love for His children.
No matter what you face this week, you can trust the One who knows more than you.
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