I'll Pray for You When Life is Hard, But You Need to Know...

I need you to know something.

When my kids were little, their dad and I bought them the toys for older kids. We read them the books that were "above their age level". We always gave them room to do more than they could. Sometimes that was hard. For them and us. Sometimes they screamed and cried with frustration. Sometimes I did. At least until they got it. We weren't cruel. We were parents who expected our kids to grow, develop, and mature. We expected them to eventually get it, whatever it was. We didn't take things away because they were hard. We waited because we knew our kids would rise to the challenge. They always did.

People contact me often to ask me to pray for God to remove the latest challenge dumped into their lap. Usually, that is something at work. Sometimes it is a relationship they cannot escape. A lot of time it is a life event that is just hard. I need you to know. YOU need to know. If you contact me and ask me to pray you out of those things, I won't.
I will pray for you to mature.
I will pray for you to grow in strength, character, and faith.
I will pray for you to have the mind of Christ to see it how you need to see it and to see your self as you need to see yourself.
I will pray for God to show you how you are the problem. I will pray for you to change so that you can overcome whatever it is.
I will pray for you to become more like Christ, but I will not enable you to stay stunted in your Christian walk by praying away your chance to grow. As a pastor, as a friend, as a sister in Christ, I cannot in good conscience do that. BUT, while you are growing, I'm with you. My heart and prayers are constantly for you.

I realize a lot of you will never want me to pray for you again. I understand. I've been there, but if you do, I'm here.

Blessings,
Jerri