What if your story, however, was out of your control? What if someone else's choices turned your story upside down? What if a dark plot twist was inserted into your story unexpectedly without your permission? Maybe you were betrayed by another character. Perhaps an unforeseen enemy entered the story and now the ending you were counting on is no longer an option.

You're standing in a valley too; it's dark, but the slopes rising up on either side are not the consequences of your own choices. They're the painful loss and grief created by someone else's.

What I am saying, tired parent, is this:  your child's emotional well-being, academic success, and spiritual health is not all depending on you. You and I can parent purposefully, pray for our children, and then entrust them to God. There is no scenario in which we can perfectly parent our kids using tried and true strategies resulting in perfect children.You and I live our life overcoming our own parents' shortcomings. That's what they did and that is what our children will do.

But I heard someone say recently that there is always blue sky. Clouds roll in to obscure our view of it, sometimes gray and gloomy, at other times dark and threatening, but clouds don't stay forever. The dreary clouds are temporary, but the sun in its vast expanse of clear blue is a constant.We just have to look hard, to train our eyes to see through the overcast and into the overwhelming promise of hope we have in Christ. We have to train our minds to remember what is true. The winter will turn to spring, the dreary skies will clear and we will feel the sun on our faces again.