In the parable of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-32, the younger son went to his father and requested his inheritance. In other words, the younger son did not want to wait for his father to die to get his share and like most young people, they want it now! We often talk about the younger son’s perspective and what he went through and had to come back to his father after he came to himself and then we talk about the older son’s perspective of getting his inheritance and having everything the father’s had and still complained. But I have never heard the father’s perspective really told.
Think about your younger child comes to you and tell you that he or she want their money right now and want to leave home to do God knows what! Now I don’t know about you, but I know if it was me I might have to say a few words, but the father didn’t say anything. He granted the younger son’s request. He not only gave the younger son his part of his inheritance, but he also gave his older son his part as well. Let me say that again, the father did not say anything, only granted the request of his child. Parents we have to do just that say nothing; just grant it.
One of the hardest things for a parent to do is to let go of a child to go through their wilderness experience. Not knowing what they are doing? Who they are with? Why they are with them? What they are eating? Are they resting? Is anyone taking advantage of them? As a parent we all have great expectations for our children, but they are “our” expectations. What I have found is the comfort in the word, “But when he came to himself.” The younger son had no money and was about to eat the food that he was feeding the swine because he was so hungry. But instead, the younger son began to think of his father. He began to think of home. See if the father had taken a different attitude toward the son before he had left, he probably would have left and never thought of home or maybe never even came back home.
The father’s perspective in this parable is the Father in heaven perspective. When we do wrong against Him, our Father does not turn us away. He allows us to fall, repent, and come back to Him. Just like the father welcomed his humbled son back with open arms. We forget we were out there too. So take the Father’s perspective when issue may arise with your children. They may get lost along the way, but when they come to themselves, they will know to come back home.