Sins of the Fathers and resulting curses (VIII) Inadequate nurture

I cannot leave this series of posts without saying something about the role of nurture in these things. I mentioned last day about lack of encouragement,  today it's about lack of nurture. There is spiritual song by Alberto and Kimberly Rivera  entitled “Royalty.” In it the little girl speaks “Mummy,  daddy look at me, look at the beautiful princess that I am.” It continues  with the Lord saying “I remember the day you stopped believing you were a princess,  and my heart broke.…” It goes on to tell how He wants to restore the broken heart (Luke 4:18).  The song touches me, because while we do not want to countenance overindulgence, in order to have a healthy self image we do need to know that God sees us as  princes and princesses.   Again we do not want to be spoiled brats, but God does want us to know that we are special,  that we are  specially loved, significant and made worthy in Christ.  Some of our hymnology does not promote that (such a worm as I)!

I am not saying I did this especially well,  but I am aware that as fathers we are intended to love our daughters into life, and equip our sons to do the same with their future  wives.  It took me a long time to realize that lack of nurture is actually quite devastating.  It is different from abuse, at least  in that it’s easier to see that that is wrong, but when something is missing,  well we  likely don’t know what we are missing until we receive it.  But it seems that when nurture it is missing,  we consciously or subconsciously seek it, and more often than not,  seek it in all the wrong places. For example, it is not logical or reasonable to expect our spouse to provide for us what was missing in childhood, or to make up for any abuse we suffered.

Now Romans 8:28 is true (God works all things together for good for those who love Him).  And one of the ways He does this,  is that when we have suffered enough trying to find love and nurture in all the wrong places,  eventually come into our right mind and determine to return to the Father (Luke 15:13, 17), then we find that He is ready,  willing and able to meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).  Like the son in this story, we will likely have to come to the end of ourselves,  even to a point of desperation,   before we come to Him. We do not know that God is all we  need,  until God is all we have (Luke 15:20-24)!

Father, I want to thank You again this morning that You knew what it would take before I was willing to come to You. I had tried it my way  both before and after salvation.  These ways  seemed right, but in fact ended in destruction  (Proverbs 14:12). But like the father in the story, You were waiting for me to come into my right mind,  and when I did and fully returned to You,   I did indeed find in You all  that I needed. And I want to praise and thank You,  again  like the father in the story,  You  lavished Your love upon me. Father I pray this morning for those reading this who are not quite there yet,  that  they will know that this is for them too,  and that it will encourage them to press in,  in Jesus Name Amen