Hind Sight

One of the benefits of getting older is that hindsight is very clear. That's the reason for an "ahah" moment I had last night. To explain this I need to go back about 10 years. In those days my daughter was 15 and having all the teenage anguishes. One of them was the feeling that she had no friends - especially at church. I remember being there as a teen, don't you. But as I observed her situation, I realized that she wasn't just feeling that way, there was truly a "click" in the teen group at church and she was not invited to join. I could write all day about how frustrating that was for me as a parent and how I feel about those kids (who are adults today). But as a mom who could feel her daughter's pain, I used to pray that just one of those kids would open their eyes and see what a wonderful kid my daughter was. But it never happened. It was hard for me to understand why God wouldn't answer our prayers and give her a friend in her church group. Well, fast forward to today and I am happy to say that I have a happy, well adjusted daughter who is a true servant of the Lord. She has a kind and sensitive heart and reaches out to anyone who is feeling down. Last night I was surfing around on the net and on Facebook and came across some profiles of many of those kids (from good Christian homes I might add)and I checked out some of their photo albums. An overwhelming theme in these pictures was everyone holding beer bottles looking like they were ready to topple over, people flipping the finger to the camera, and lots of profanity in their descriptions. It broke my heart. That's when the "ahah" moment came. My precious heavenly Father was protecting my daughter from the influence of a group of kids that had no spiritual depth and who only were Christians in words and not life. He could see the hearts of those kids all those years ago. I could only see their church attendance. He knew my daughter deserved better. Thank you Lord. You always know what is best.