Casting Our Nets Forward

You absolutely did not do all the right things parenting your child. I know I didn’t. No one does, and it is time to leave the past there—in the past.

If your child is now a prodigal, it can be difficult to do that, and those memories can be a playground for the enemy and a time waster in this fight. Let’s go forward from here instead of dwelling on the past, a past we cannot change.

I read a prayer years ago by Dr. James Dobson that has helped me through some really tough times:

“Lord, You know my inadequacies. You know my weaknesses, not only in parenting, but also in every area of my life. I did the best I could, but it wasn’t good enough. As you broke the fishes and the loaves to feed the 5,000, now take my meager effort and use it to bless my family. Make up for the things I did wrong. Satisfy the needs that I have not satisfied. Wrap Your great arms around my children, and draw them close to You. And be there when they stand at the great crossroads between right and wrong. All I can give is my best, and I’ve done that. Therefore, I submit to You my children and myself and the job I did as a parent. The outcome now belongs to You” (The Dobson Digital Library – You Are a Good Parent (dobsonlibrary.com))

I’ve prayed versions of this prayer more times than I can count. It is such a comfort to leave that burden in the hands of Almighty God, and through faith in Him to answer this prayer, we can cast our nets forward. Instead of spending precious time worrying about what we could have done differently, we spend that time getting ahold of God for their present and future lives and in sowing life into our prodigals.

You most likely parented prayerfully, as did I. Now, we trust that God has heard and will hear our prayers for them, just like He said He would.

Let me leave this with a few verses that tell us this very thing:

  • “Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me” (Micah 7:7 KJV).
  • “[I]f anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him” (John 9:31).
  • “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry. The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles” (Psalm 34:15, 17).

Casting our nets forward is a much better use of our time and a much more peaceful and faith-filled place to be.

2 thoughts on “Casting Our Nets Forward”

  1. Lisa says:
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    Lisa's avatar

    As a working mom of 4 girls, his, mine and ours, parenting was not always easy. I know I did the best I could at the time and prayed so many times for God to take up my slack. That said, our adult children’s choices are their own. We are not responsible for those choices. It’s our responsibility to pray for them, love them where they are, and surrender them to him. He is faithful. He has them in his hands. I remember when my daughter was trapped in addiction, it felt like that period in our lives would never end. God told me that he had her in his hands and he does not lose what is his. I clung to his promises through sometimes paralyzing fear. Looking in the natural, it seemed she would either end up dead or in prison, but Gods promises prevailed. The turning point came when I heard the song, Thy Will, on the radio. I had an epiphany that day and realized I had done everything humanly possible to help her, I had prayed every prayer I knew to pray and that only God could help her. We fixers sometimes need to be reminded that there are things we cannot fix. I chose that day to turn her over to him and for his will to be done. That moment God began to turn things around even though I couldn’t see it. I continue to believe that God has a purpose and a plan for her life and that she will return to him at some point.

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