This past week, there have been hundreds of graduation parties as children move from elementary school to middle school, or middle school to high school; and finally on to college. Each of these occasions is a marker event – something to celebrate as our children move from one stage of school to another. In our case, and maybe yours as well, it’s our grandchildren who are making the move – our kids made the transition many years ago. And it’s not too far a stretch to also note that each of these graduation experiences also marks a change in life seasons as people take on new roles and we, as parents, must learn to adjust to the aging of our kids.
Let’s face it – as we watch our families grow from small children to young adults and then, finally into adults, we must adjust our thinking and our attitude toward letting go and recognize the need to trust our children with increasing responsibilities. And I can tell you from first hand experience that it still troubles Janet and me to observe, from time to time, the decisions our children still make. I don’t know that parents ever stop worrying about their families. In fact, my parents, and even Janet’s parents, still questioned some of the decisions that we made well into our adult years. What can I say?
One of the things that we need to remember is that modeling a behavior of faith and trust in the Lord is important in raising our kids. Because children can tend to look at the Bible the way they look at the other areas of their lives. They think that the Bible can change from season to season the way our lives change as we get older. But the Bible isn’t quite the same. The meaning or interpretation of the Bible never changes – it is a reliable document but we must be open to the differing applications of the Scripture as we age. This happens through the agency of the Holy Spirit who speaks to us in different ways as we experience more of life and what God has in store for us.
If we decide to change the interpretation of Scripture we start down a slippery slope. Because then we don’t know have any basis for staying committed to anything in the Bible. Suddenly, we lose our grounding and then there is no telling what can happen. We start to bend things to fit what we want the Bible to stay – and that’s not the way it is supposed to work. We are the created, not the Creator. So it’s far better to trust in God and realize that the steadfastness of the Bible never changes, but the Holy Spirit can convict us differently as we go through the stages of life. That means that God speaks to us with different applications of his word as we are able to understand the mysteries of the deeper messages contained there.
The verse for this evening is from the Psalms. We are told, in “Psalm 119:130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” My encouragement this evening is that God wants you to understand and be obedient to His word. My prayer is that as you go through the seasons of your life, you will grow in your understanding of what God wants to say to you through the Holy Spirit and that you will be drawn closer to Him in the process. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…