Within the next few days the Massachusetts highway department will need to cut down a beautiful white birch tree that is leaning more and more over the road. It has not been bowed down by ice or by some boy climbing. It has just decided to lean. If trees could talk surely one of the larger trees would have warned it not to lean that direction. The result of leaning that direction will always be a chainsaw.
Johnny Cash used to sing a song entitled “Don’t take your guns to town son.” It’s a ballad of a mother wise enough to know certain actions produce certain results. He died. It is the story told over and over again. Parents try to tell their children not to go a certain way because they know where it leads. How often do children think parents and churches are just there to spoil sport? There is wisdom in listening to those who have traveled the road ahead. Unfortunately so many are wise too late.
Disasters begin with tiny movements and tiny deviations from the right way. Pilots know that a very small variation will over the course of a few hundred miles lead one way off the intended destination. The challenge for parents is how to set our children off in the right direction. This is where prayer and the claiming of James 1:5 is extremely important. We need divine guidance so we can in turn guide. One who cannot or will not take counsel is never fit to give counsel. Only God knows everything. The rest of us need help.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 7, 2008
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574