Peace for the Past, Hope for the Future

Yesterday I celebrated Jesus the risen Christ. After an inspiring service at my church, I spent the day with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. We ate a wonderful dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes finishing up with strawberry shortcake. Yum! (And I didn’t have to cook a thing.) Thanks, Wendy.

However, I know that for many moms they may have been worried about where their children were and what they were doing. Kids can do crazy things on Spring break. So this week I am writing on wayward children. I pray it brings hope and encouragement to every parent who worries about the actions of a child.

I like the phrase, “Peace for the Past, Hope for the Future”. This phrase is certainly true of my own past. I had a semi-dysfunctional childhood and a very rebellious adolescence. For example, when I was fourteen my goal in life was to go to reform school. Why? Because all of my friends were there, of course! I skipped school. I swore like a sailor. I was kicked out of school twice. Do you get the picture? If not, please see below. Now let me add a disclaimer to this. The pipe did NOT have anything in it. (I wanted it to, but it was an antique pipe from my great-great-grandfather who smoked “tobaccy” in it.) I wanted to “look” cool so I posed with the pipe. I was 13 at the time and was basically unaware of drugs until I went to high school—but we’ll save that for another blog.

Then right before I turned sixteen, my stepmother loved me into the arms of Christ. I was not an easy one to love, but she did it well and genuinely. She didn’t make me into a “salvation of the soul project.” She just loved and told me about the unconditional love of Jesus. The day I became a Christ follower my life began to turn around. Of course, it wasn’t an overnight process and I have had quite a few stumbles and flat on my face many times. But, the power of Jesus Christ in my life changed not only my life, but also the lives of my future children and the distant future of my grandchildren.

If not for the saving grace of our Risen Jesus, I would not have had the lovely Easter that I had yesterday. Jesus is the Peace for our past and the Hope for our Future—especially for our children.

Keep that in your thoughts and I will see you tomorrow.