Conclusion to “Job’s Friends” part 4
I do my best to tell each new mother that they are only accountable to God and must please Him with their parenting. I suggest they ask for advice and listen as others give it, but in the end, they must make the decision with God’s help what they are going to do with and for their child. That’s the only way they will be able to sleep at night when troubles come and know that they did their best. It doesn’t matter what you do, you’ll always find those who judge and think you’re doing it all wrong. The thing is, you might be doing it “wrong,” but you’ll be the one who has to live with your choices.
We’ve had families tell our kids when they turned 18 that they didn’t have to listen to us anymore because they were adults now. So every one of them went off and made very bad decisions and messed up their lives at “our friend’s” suggestion. Where are they now? Did those who advised them to disregard our guidance stick around to pick up the pieces afterward? – absolutely not. We’ve even had people tell our kids that we adopted them for the money. Yeah, right. And that’s why we have a second mortgage now, because of all the big bucks that rolled in. Besides, you couldn’t have paid me a million dollars to go through what we have gone through over the years. We only did what we did because God gave us a desire to help another in need. Our world throws away kids and considers them a bother or inconvenience. We wanted to be different. We wanted to do what Christ would have done – treasure the children. Was it worth it? Was it worth all the heartache, pain and disappointments? Well, the jury is still out on that one. We’ve had many successes, but there have been many more disappointments. I suppose it will take years to see a good outcome of our efforts, but the ride would have been a lot less bumpy if “Job’s friends” had been driven by compassion.
To all of you who are real friends, thank you. You have filled in the gaps. You have had a part in loving the unlovable. You’ve help make it possible for us to stay faithful. You have let God use you in a wonderful way. God will reward you for loving our family – whether you’ve done it for 30 days, or 30 years. Those of you who have not, well, God knows.
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