Prodigal: Goin’ over yander.

Me: I will be there too!

This is from The Strong Family by Charles Swindoll

In it all you must be reasonable.

Perfect children do not live in your home or mine. Neither do perfect parents. Understand, there will be times when you will break your own rules. To live under the assault of constant guilt will do neither you nor your family any good. For lack of a better way to put it, leave a little “wobble room.” Try very hard not to demand perfection or to bring up past-and-forgiven wrongs or to set your expectation level to high. A family must remain a team. That means you must pull together..flex, adjust, give, take. When children grow up in a “reasonable” environment, they feel the freedom to fail without a ton of guilt falling all over them. They also grow up with better memories of how things were in their younger years.

Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief. Proverbs 14:13 (NIV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org