{"id":5330,"date":"2017-11-29T17:16:02","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T23:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5330"},"modified":"2017-11-29T17:16:02","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T23:16:02","slug":"help-my-child-is-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2017\/11\/29\/help-my-child-is-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"Help, My Child is Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anonymous<\/strong>
\nA teacher at my high school walked up and asked, \u201cHave you seen\u00a0[My older sister\u2019s name]\u2019s\u00a0pictures\u00a0from\u00a0prom?\u201d She had graduated from my high school the year before and attended a well-known\u00a0Christian\u00a0university\u00a0over six hours away, so I assumed that there must be a\u00a0mistake. How would she\u00a0even\u00a0make it to our prom?\u00a0Then again, I also realized that my sister and the teacher had always\u00a0been close, so the chances of her getting her confused with someone else were\u00a0slim to none.\u00a0I played along like it wasn\u2019t that big of a deal;\u00a0I\u00a0said that no, I hadn\u2019t\u00a0seen them. She showed me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nMy sister\u00a0was always rebellious growing up.\u00a0Her\u00a0infractions\u00a0weren\u2019t necessarily substantial,\u00a0a rule broken here or there.\u00a0Sadly, once we hit our teenage years, it very quickly moved\u00a0beyond petty rules being broken.\u00a0I\u2019ve since learned that she would\u00a0often\u00a0sneak off to pool parties,\u00a0dances,\u00a0and the like, telling my parents that she was going to a friend\u2019s house.\u00a0Away from our parents,\u00a0she was always quick to evoke inappropriate clothing and language. However, those prom pictures were far beyond anything that I would have expected, even for her. Not only did she go\u00a0to a place that we\u00a0had\u00a0both\u00a0heard a countless multitude\u00a0of sermons against, she went dressed in a manner that shames our family to this day. On top of that, she drove six hours from\u00a0school\u00a0without any of our family\u00a0knowing that she was in town,\u00a0specifically in order to attend\u00a0prom.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nHere is where my\u00a0own\u00a0mistake enters the picture:\u00a0I kept it to myself.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nMy older sister was always my idol growing up, and continued to be until after she left. To her, I was nothing but\u00a0the annoying little brother. So,\u00a0I chose to keep all of\u00a0her secrets from our parents and everyone else. I\u00a0tried to talk\u00a0to her about\u00a0what she was doing,\u00a0but I felt that, if I told them, I would destroy\u00a0any chance of her\u00a0ever doing anything more than\u00a0tolerating me.\u00a0Looking back, I now realize that if I had only told someone\u00a0from the beginning,\u00a0when I saw the signs of her going down the wrong path, things\u00a0could\u00a0have turned out very differently.\u00a0<\/span>
\nMonths came and went.\u00a0There\u00a0weren\u2019t many things that she even attempted to hide\u00a0anymore.\u00a0At one point, she\u00a0and our father got\u00a0into\u00a0a substantial\u00a0argument about whether or not\u00a0she should go on a trip that defied Biblical principles.\u00a0Eventually, she\u00a0declared\u00a0that she was going to go, whether or not Mom and Dad\u00a0supported\u00a0her.\u00a0She\u00a0then\u00a0packed a few\u00a0of her things\u00a0and drove down the driveway as my parents chased the car,\u00a0begging\u00a0her to stop.\u00a0That night,\u00a0my parents, siblings, and I all\u00a0sat in a stunned silence. We didn\u2019t speak.\u00a0We didn\u2019t even cry; those\u00a0tears would come later.\u00a0If you have experienced this\u2013\u2013and\u00a0oh how\u00a0I pray that you haven\u2019t\u2013\u2013then you know exactly how it feels. There is simply no accurate way to make someone understand who has never experienced it.\u00a0<\/span>
\nSince that dark day\u00a0two years ago, I have\u00a0only\u00a0seen her once.\u00a0People\u00a0will\u00a0still occasionally ask if she\u2019s tried to contact us, but for the most part, they\u2019ve been able to move on, to forget. For my family, however, until the day that she comes back, if that day\u00a0ever comes, we will never be able to push\u00a0the acknowledgment away. Even if the thought resides in\u00a0the deepest recesses\u00a0of our minds, it is there.\u00a0Everything from the empty chair at the dinner table to\u00a0the empty spot in the driveway where her car always sat,\u00a0all serve as undying\u00a0reminders that something isn\u2019t as it should be, though they are never voiced.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThankfully, this story doesn\u2019t have a\u00a0totally\u00a0unhappy ending;\u00a0when we are faithfully serving our\u00a0Lord\u00a0and Master, no story ever does. While she hasn\u2019t come home or repented,\u00a0and we have minimal contact with her, I\u00a0can truthfully say that I have been able to\u00a0glean much from this experience.\u00a0I pray that you will hear my pleas.\u00a0Despite the fact that I am\u00a0\u201cbut a youth,\u201d\u00a0I give you this charge:\u00a0<\/span>
\nIf you\u00a0are\u00a0<\/b>that unfaithful child in your family, whether you are 16 or 60, come home. Even you, of all people, cannot\u00a0begin to\u00a0understand\u00a0the pain that your\u00a0family feels from your absence.\u00a0They love you. They desperately want you home. If you won\u2019t do that, then at the very least come home to your Father. He will forgive you (Psalms 86:5; Matthew 11:28-30)\u00a0and remember your transgressions no more (Psalms 103:12). He longs for you to come home to Him (Luke 15:20).\u00a0It would be very easy to declare, \u201cI\u2019ll come to church and\u00a0\u2018go forward\u2019\u00a0tomorrow, or next week, or in a month or two.\u201d However, first of all, we are given no such promise that our lives will endure to that point\u00a0(James 4:14). Secondly, you must realize that tomorrow never comes. Unless you fix things\u00a0right now, the chances of it ever happening are not very good. I say it again:\u00a0your Heavenly Father wants nothing more than to have you back in His fold, to have\u00a0you return to His arms.\u00a0I beg you, don\u2019t keep Him waiting. Even now,\u00a0yea,\u00a0this very moment,\u00a0you are breaking His heart.\u00a0<\/span>
\nOr, if you are the\u00a0family member\u00a0of that unfaithful child, stay strong. Regardless of whether\u00a0you\u2019re the parent, sibling, or third cousin twice removed, remain steadfast (1 Corinthians 15:58; Hebrews 3:14).\u00a0We oftentimes believe that only the parents suffer from this loss, and while their\u00a0pain is most assuredly\u00a0the\u00a0greater,\u00a0it is not limited to them\u00a0alone. I know that for now, it seems\u00a0it will never get easier, and to be\u00a0completely\u00a0honest\u00a0with you, it doesn\u2019t. But\u00a0you\u00a0have a choice. You can choose to be miserable. You can choose to blame that family member,\u00a0your\u00a0God, your preacher, your youth group,\u00a0or yourself. And for the first year of her absence, this is the decision that I made. I bottled up my hatred for her actions and my lack thereof, but what did it solve? Nothing.\u00a0It only made me bitter at the world. Who knows how many opportunities for good passed me by in that time that I was too wrapped in self-pity to acknowledge?\u00a0<\/span>
\nYou\u00a0could\u00a0choose to be miserable. But why would you\u00a0want to\u00a0when you\u00a0can also choose to be at peace?\u00a0What I am\u00a0not\u00a0saying is that\u00a0to be at peace,\u00a0you have to somehow try to accept or forget what has been done. However, we\u00a0can\u00a0have peace in the most brutal of storms. Do you recall\u00a0what Jesus said to\u00a0His disciples when\u00a0they became afraid of\u00a0the storm that arose while they were on the sea? He said, \u201cWhy are ye fearful, O ye of\u00a0little faith?\u201d (Matthew 8:23-26, KJV)\u00a0It is in these storms,\u00a0even this\u00a0one,\u00a0that\u00a0we\u00a0get to\u00a0show the true caliber of our faith.\u00a0As the old saying goes, you can let this make you bitter, or you can let it make you better. Putting all blame aside, only\u00a0you<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>get to\u00a0decide how happy you are, regardless of the circumstances that you currently find yourself.\u00a0<\/span>
\nWith that in mind, I plead with you:\u00a0Never give up on them.\u00a0Even as the years go\u00a0crawling by, we\u00a0never know how a simple,\u00a0kind word to them could bring them\u00a0to their senses.\u00a0Regardless of the pain that they have caused you, never stop taking their name\u00a0before the Lord in prayer. I know that, more often than not,\u00a0it feels that there are no words to say.\u00a0Romans 8:26 says, \u201cLikewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.\u201d\u00a0He is\u00a0more than\u00a0willing to help you if you will but help yourself.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nMay you always find solace in the words of\u00a02 Corinthians 4:17,\u00a0\u201cFor our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anonymous A teacher at my high school walked up and asked, \u201cHave you seen\u00a0[My older sister\u2019s name]\u2019s\u00a0pictures\u00a0from\u00a0prom?\u201d She had graduated from my high school the year before and attended a well-known\u00a0Christian\u00a0university\u00a0over six hours away, so I assumed that there must be a\u00a0mistake. How would she\u00a0even\u00a0make it to our prom?\u00a0Then again, I also realized that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,66],"tags":[1135,1137,58,1150,1163],"class_list":["post-5330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-think-excerpts","tag-1135","tag-august","tag-children","tag-lost","tag-prodigal","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nHelp, My Child is Lost - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2017\/11\/29\/help-my-child-is-lost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Help, My Child is Lost - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Anonymous A teacher at my high school walked up and asked, \u201cHave you seen\u00a0[My older sister\u2019s name]\u2019s\u00a0pictures\u00a0from\u00a0prom?\u201d She had graduated from my high school the year before and attended a well-known\u00a0Christian\u00a0university\u00a0over six hours away, so I assumed that there must be a\u00a0mistake. 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