Family & Parenting
My adult child has walked away from Christianity entirely. I feel like I failed as a parent.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
This proverb is a general wisdom observation, not an ironclad guarantee. It is not saying you get to control your adult child's choices; no one does. It is saying that faithful investment in a child's formation is not wasted even when the current chapter looks like it has been. Many who wander in their twenties return by their forties.
“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
The prodigal's father does not chase his son into the far country, and he does not lock the door when the son leaves. He lets him go, keeps watching, and runs when the son returns. The model is not control but faithful, watching love. Your job in this season is to be the parent they can come back to.
A path forward
Resist the impulse to make every interaction about their faith. If every conversation carries that freight, your adult child will start avoiding you. Be the person they want to call.
Pray for them specifically and persistently. What you cannot do through conversation, God can do through means you cannot control or predict.
Examine honestly whether there are things about how faith was lived out in your home that may have contributed to their departure, not to take full blame but to understand, and where appropriate, to apologize.
Closing verse
“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
- Isaiah 55:11
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