Grace for Them...and for Us

Once a month I write a letter to the wonderful Prayer for Prodigals community I am part of.  Often those letters, though specific to those who love a prodigal, apply to any or all of us in the challenging circumstances of life.  

Dear Lover of Prodigals,

Sometimes it seems to no avail.

You love unconditionally as best you can.

You apply some tough love.

You encourage, affirm, look for the good.

You set boundaries and enforce consequences.

You forgive and forgive and forgive again.

You pour out mercy and grace.

And they keep going their wayward way.

They reject you, disappear from your life.

Or even when they make better choices, they take you for granted.

The casual “Thanks” hardly conveys gratitude.

The offhand apology seems barely sincere.

Coming around again with outstretched hand.

Then gone until the next neediness.

You cry, you pray.

You reach out, you let go.

You wait.

A familiar state of mind or stream of consciousness or conversation with yourself?

I’ve had those thoughts, those questions.

Wondering how it will end.  When it will end.

Perhaps our God, our loving Father, could write the same things about us.

Surely sometimes we have the same attitudes, responses, words, actions toward Him that our beloved prodigals have toward us. Yet He keeps loving, correcting, encouraging,…

He gives out extravagant mercy and grace.

He waits.

May His Spirit in us give us all we need to respond to them as He responds to them…and to us.

In His grace, Judy

c 2014 Judy Douglass

If you would be interested in requesting prayer for a prodigal loved one, or being a part of our wonderful praying community, respond in comments or write to me at PrayerforProdigals at gmaildotcom.