Turn to YOU
In times of crisis, who is the first person you call? It’s a fair question and often who we think is our go to person is not the person we ACTUALLY turn to. Sometimes, if I’m being completely realistic, we can turn to drugs or alcohol or food or sex or something else because we don’t want to burden another person or because we don’t know how to put into words what we are feeling or we are embarrassed because we think we should be stronger and don’t want others to think we are weak. All of these things are fair assessments of how we as humans deal with crisis, or what we define as crisis.
Now as a mother, when my children were small, they needed their mother for everything. I needed to provide them with food, kiss their scraps and give them baths. I took them to school, packed lunches and even coached sports teams. I was the one they would come to when they had a question about homework or when they were frustrated or hurt by a friend or classmate.
As they grew into middle school and high school, that person they’d turn to when they needed help was generally a classmate, best friend or boyfriend. The number of times I would be their go to became limited.
Now my girls are all young adults and as they face adulthood, they tend to seek their Dad’s advice and opinions more. It has actually been a real flip in parenting where when they were small they needed their Mom and as they’ve become adults, they need their Dad. It is bittersweet because I’m so glad they are reaching out to him, still needing and wanting their parent’s advice, but feeling a bit like the training wheels on the bike of a kid who has mastered riding the bike!
The other day though, I got a call from one of my girls who just wanted to talk to her Mom. She’d had a hard day at work and needed the comfort you she could only get from hearing her Mom’s voice. I tell you, no matter how old they get, your kids NEVER stop being your kids!
This experience reminded me a lot of the Prodigal Son story from the Bible, primarily how happy the Father was to see his son return. Though my daughter was not removed from me, as she became more independent, her need for me lessened. I think this is only true in our human relationships.
I believe in our relationship with God, we need to continuously turn to him and seek out his guidance, his comfort and his voice. The world is full of noise and we don’t always hear God when he is speaking to us. We get distracted by other things that feel like expectations on our time which keep us from turning to God. Like me, welcoming my daughter in, or like the Father being filled with joy when his son came home, God is there the minute you turn to him.
