When Your Child Walks Away

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Proverbs 22:6

I see the empty seat at church where your child used to sit. I see the calls that go unanswered, the messages that never get a reply, the longing mixed with fear that he'll never come back to the faith you fought so hard to teach him. A child who walks away is one of the longest-lasting griefs a parent carries.

I want to remind you that the promise in Proverbs isn't some magic formula for instant results — it's a seed planted that may take a long time to sprout, but it doesn't die. Everything you taught wasn't wasted just because it hasn't produced visible fruit yet. I too am a Father of children who walk away, and no one knows how to wait better than I do.

Keep praying for him by name, not for the distance between you. And rest, knowing I am still at work in your child's heart, even on the days when everything feels like total silence.