Objective Truth

Part of being a child is that they don’t come to life with what is necessary to live objectively in a world that is not going to go according to their wants and wishes. They are self-oriented; mindful of their own wants, wishes, ways but pretty blind to the needs of others. They are caught in their own hopes and dreams and plans for each day and when circumstances and relationships don’t go that way, they become angry, disillusioned and sometimes, bitter.

So when they come home from school and you ask them how their day went, you become their sounding board for how to respond to what happened. If, for example, they are all smiles and happy, then you will not need to reinterpret what happened. (Not that it doesn’t need reinterpreting, but you will have plenty of other chances to do so with the troubles that come.) But, if they come in with the barrage of problems, “No one sat near me at lunch,” or “I didn’t understand anything in math class today,” then is when you have the opportunity to bring objective truth to them.

As a parent, that is your task. You are the outside objective truth agent to your children when they are caught in the throes of emotional responses. Obviously, you need to be on their side, hear their complaint and ensure that they know that you have heard them. But the next step is to NOT get caught up in their hurts. Becoming offended at the student or adult or circumstance that has happened, will leave you unable to bring to them the truth that is always true.

So what do they need to hear? First and foremost they need to hear that God is good. Their interpretation will be, “If God loves me, then why did this happen?” Second they need to hear that "All things are being worked out for our good and God’s glory." Their interpretation will be “God doesn’t love me,” or “How could this possibly be good?” I know this is difficult when our kids have been hurt. But that is what they need to hear because it is true. It is what we need to hear as well. So we must be soaking ourselves with this.