Decisions Today Impact our Children’s Tomorrow

Melody Merritt

“A wise woman builds her house, but a foolish woman tears her house down with her own hands.” Proverbs 14:1

Fourteen years ago, my husband left our home and moved to Canada to live with another woman, leaving me alone to raise our two daughters. Without any money, this stay-at-home wife had to pick up the pieces of life and find a job.

I was devastated and angry. I wanted to lash out and hurt this man. I wanted to get even. But God’s Word said to let go of the anger, the resentment, the bitterness, and all the negative emotions that were piling up.

I tried, but it was not easy. I found I couldn’t do it in my strength. As I began to pray and dig deeper into His Word, He met me. His Truth helped me trust Him and to release the anger and bitterness to Jesus.

While trudging through that season of life, I realized my young daughters were watching me. I instinctively knew my decisions each day would impact their tomorrows.

I became determined I was going to trust God and live my life according to His Word.

There were days that I didn’t feel like it.

Slowly as time went on, His Word penetrated my heart and saturated my mind. He changed my life. He gave me hope when life seemed hopeless. He gave me joy again. God’s Words found in the Bible became my lifeline.

Then came the day my oldest daughter asked, “Who is right, you or Dad? Dad says it’s okay to live with someone outside of marriage, but you’ve said it’s wrong. Who do I listen to?”

I wanted to say something ugly and sarcastic about her Dad, the situation, and tell her never to listen to him again. But I knew this would just pit us against each other leaving my daughters to choose sides.

As I shot up arrow prayers about how to answer the question, God showed me that His Word is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I wanted to be a mom who taught my children God’s Truth and lived out this Truth daily in my life. My thinking can change from time to time, but God’s doesn’t.

So my answer to my daughter’s question, I said, “Let’s go to God’s Word and see what He says.”

God’s Word is Truth that never changes. There are answers in God’s Word for every situation that arises in our lives, the big issues and the little ones.

Every woman has influence in someone else’s life. Are you going to be a woman who lives her life according to God’s Truth? Or the world’s ever changing ideas?

Decide today. Then teach this to the children in your life.

“These are not just idle words for you, they are your life.”

Deuteronomy 32:47