As a parent, it’s hard watching your children make wrong decisions or waste away their own potential. It’s hard to stand back and watch them suffer. You might give advice and suggestions. You might offer a comforting place for them. You might shed tears and pray for them. But “wisdom” – that’s something they need to search for and find. Stepping back gives them the space to mess up things, to be accountable, to try out their own inner compass, to deal with consequences, to seek God, and to look for the wisdom within.
It’s one of the hardest things a parent needs to do. There are no guarantees. But it is, I am finding out, the only pathway to growing up.