Read 1 Samuel 8

Many family counselors have observed that people who grow up in a dysfunctional home are more likely to reproduce the same patterns as adults. But childhood circumstances don’t always determine the future. Growing up in a good home does not guarantee we will share those values. Others who grow up in shocking circumstances transcend their trauma and build a very different life.

Eli had been an indolent and neglectful father. Samuel was a man of integrity. Unfortunately, Samuel was no more successful in parenting than Eli had been. After Samuel had grown old, the leaders of Israel came to him and demanded that he appoint them a king (v. 5). This was a double disappointment for Samuel, who understood their request as a personal rejection.

When Samuel expressed his displeasure to God, the Lord told him to go through with it. “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you” (vv. 7–8).

None of us will parent perfectly, and some disappointments result from our own mistakes. But children also make their own choices for which we are not to blame. Samuel and Eli are not the only fathers whose children have rebelled. God the Father has shared the same experience since the Garden of Eden. Who is a better parent than God the Father? If He has children who refuse to follow in His ways, should we be surprised if the same thing sometimes happens to us? Perhaps we can learn to see our disappointment as an opportunity to appreciate the perfect love and faithfulness of God the Father.

APPLY THE WORD

We would like to believe parenting can be reduced to a few principles, a guaranteed formula, or the right perspective. The truth is that human relationships are far more complicated. Whether you have felt disappointment as a parent or neglected as a child, take comfort in the perfect parent, God our Father, who perfectly loves, forgives, and cares for us.

http://www.todayintheword.org