A difficult child

Many decades ago I studied child psychology as part of my nursing diploma. In one study, disrupted children with a variety of problems were considered how to treat them. At that time, they were identified as "difficult children". Nowadays this term is no longer acceptable in the world of teachers and psychologists.

In prayer, I often review my wrong actions and thoughts and find it necessary to apologize to my Creator. Recently, when I was frustrated with myself in prayer, I cried out to my Father in Heaven, "I am a very difficult child!" I see myself as someone who is always stumbling and falling spiritually. Does God see me that way too? "For the Lord your God is with you, the mighty Savior. He will take great delight in you and be gracious to you; he will forgive you in his love and rejoice over you with singing." (Zef 3,17).

God is steadfast and unchanging. If He should be angry with me, I'm finished. It's what I deserve, but is it what God feels for me? The psalmist says, "Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his love endures forever." (Ps 136,26)We should be thankful that God, whose very being is love, loves us unceasingly. He hates our sins. In his infinite love and grace, God gives us, his "difficult" children, forgiveness and redemption: "Among them we all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and of reason, and by nature, like the rest, we were children of wrath. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heaven in Christ Jesus." (Eph 2,4-6).

God has wonderful plans for you: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer 29,11).

Your problems and situations in which you find yourself can be difficult, but not you as a person.

by Irene Wilson