Don’t Let Your Children Run Away!

“I’m going to run away,” I cried!

“Go ahead, I’ll help you pack your bags,” she responded.

Those words still echo in my soul sometimes.  As an adult, I understand now that they were meant as sarcasm…I think!  But as a child, they hit me like a bullet going straight through a little girl’s heart.  I was a child who lived with my grandparents most of my life beginning at one month old, but off and on, when I was in 4^th – 7^th grade, I did part of that time with my mom.

There was always a sense of not being wanted that loomed around me like a dark cloud.  If I misbehaved at one home, I was told, “Well, you can just go back and live with your grandparents if you don’t like my rules.” Or “We’ll send you back to your mother if you don’t behave.”  So I learned how to be a ‘good girl’ so that I would be allowed to stay. 

“The tongue has the power of life and death…”(Proverbs 18:21).  If we don’t believe that words have power, we are going to hurt others and be hurt numerous times in our lives; so many people sling powerful words around like a loaded shotgun shooting holes in the walls without even realizing all the damage they are causing.  I’m certain I’ve been guilty of this myself.  When hurtful words come at us like fiery darts, we’d better put up our shields. If not, we’ll be walking around injured for decades, without even realizing that there were some painful words that we internalized that created that still touchy scar. 

Be careful how you talk to others, especially children.  Let them know that they are important and that even if you are aggravated with their behavior – you love and care for them as a human being and that they are not only wanted, but cherished.  There are many words I spoke to my children that I wish I could rescind, thank goodness for God’s grace that has covered so many of my mistakes.

However, we can learn to apply the scripture that says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” (Genesis 50:20).  So, years later when my own children shouted, “I’m going to run away!”  I gently replied, “Please don’t do that, I don’t want you to leave.”  That was one battle the enemy lost when he tried to engage me again.  I didn’t repeat the generational “pack your bags” line.  No…I drew a line in the sand and ended that curse and so can you.  Take what the enemy has hurt you with and turn it around and use it against him in Jesus’ name!  In education, we call that using a non-example!