Miracles and Tender Mercies

My friend and supervisor has a daughter who has also been scrambling to complete packets in order to graduate. We have done a lot of laughing and hoping and praying. Both of our daughters are fabulous young woman. They are responsible, caring, hard-working, and excellent in many things. But now we are facing the very end of high school--and these young ladies are facing the consequences of poor choices earlier in their high school careers.

As a parent it is difficult to allow your children to make choices that you consider wrong. In this case it's not necessarily wrong, but it will have difficult and far-reaching consequences, maybe for life; it's difficult to see that happen to your children. Additionally, it is very hard not to let pride set in: I'm smarter than that--how come she couldn't be? She's just as good as that other student, maybe better! How must I look to others when I couldn't even get our daughter through high school? What will people think of her? Why didn't I ____________?

Of course, none of those pride issues is the real issue, and most of them aren't even true! But Satan will work on us to make us feel like we are failures in any way that he can.

And so, we work; we tell our children that they are great and that they can do it; we stay up late; we tell our children that they are great and that they can do it; we help with homework, even when we aren't sure what we're talking about; we tell our children that they are great and that they can do it; we tell them that again. And we pray.

This is another hard thing. What I want to pray is, "Father, please make it all OK. Let her finish and succeed. FIX IT!" What I try to pray is, "Father, please make it all OK, whatever that is. Let her succeed, even if it means she has to fail. I haven't been perfect. Neither has she. But we're working, and we're trying to do all we can to fix this and make it right. Help us to accept thy will. Please help us."

This morning my dear friend came into the office completely frazzled and announced that it didn't look like her daughter was going to graduate. She was heart-sick and emotional and disappointed and frustrated. She told us later that she hardly even remembered walking to the bus stop because she was praying so hard. And finally she found it in her to say, "According to thy will..." As soon as she truly prayed that, her burden was lighter. She was still concerned about her daughter and the situation, but she was doing all she could and leaving the rest in God's hands. This afternoon her older, married son and his wife called and offered to sit up with her daughter all night to get as much done as they could. And then a dear friend contacted her roommate, who was a high school chemistry teacher, who agreed to help them all through the night if necessary in order to get this packet completed.

Somehow, God helps us through things. And it is still possible that--after all of this--there will be no graduation ceremony. But there have been blessings and understanding and learning that may not have come in any other way.

(As a follow-up: we are still hoping and praying in our family, too. But friends--Bri's and ours--have stepped up to the plate to help in many, many ways. Bri, too, has kept on plugging. She's had lots of late nights, but she's getting there. We are cautiously hopeful. And we are grateful for the blessings and the understanding and the learning.)