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I'm not coming any more!

by Major Catherine Wyles, UK Territory with the Republic of Ireland

Major Catherine Wyles
'I'M NOT COMING ANY MORE!' my 17 -year-old son roared on a Sunday morning. I had known that he hated going to the corps. The rule had been: 'While you live in this house you attend worship.' But it was becoming increasingly obvious that keeping to this was just not going to work. Honestly, I think my husband took it better than I did; I saw it as a betrayal of everything I had tried to teach my son. I felt like I had failed as a mother and officer. I thought I knew how to communicate my faith with young people; yet here was my own precious son turning his back not only on the Army but on the Lord too. I was angry with him, and to be honest I was angry with God as well.

How could God let this happen? Hadn't we been obedient in our moves? It was not easy to move our children in different stages of their lives, but we made it through. And what would other people think?

I wanted my family to be a model family for what a Christian family should be. Every prodigal has to make his or her own journey and I must allow my children to do the same. All I can do is hopefully signpost the way and love them, no matter what.

Can you relate to this? We all deeply care about our family's reaction to spiritual things whether we are birth parents or spiritual parents. It is easy to lose confidence in our parenting skills especially when our children report all the things we have done 'wrong' from their viewpoint. The next article will encourage you as parents in what you are doing right.

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