For Christ's Glory, I Dream Devotions, advice, and book reviews from science fiction and fantasy author Andrea Graham

Dear Andrea,

I have a 28 year old daughter that is living with her boyfriend. She claims to be a Christian, but wants nothing to do with church or other Christians. She has been rebellious for the last 14 years ever since she moved in with her father….

…She says she does not feel guilty about having sex outside of marriage although she does admit she is living in sin. Last May when she moved in with her boyfriend I told her I was disfellowshiping her and would not be going to lunch with her, etc…

.…I feel I have been in the fight or flight mode for many years and at this point it is definitely flight. I am really burned out being a parent and have a lot more peace in my life when I don’t have contact with her.

I did go to lunch with her last week (she wanted to take me out for my birthday) and she was so negative and nasty I went to bed for the rest of the day because I was depressed. For years she told me her friends were more important than family, that we have nothing in common and that we don’t need to talk on the phone very often. Now that I have distanced myself she is after me and wants me to go to lunch with her on a reg. basis. She says she wants to have a relationship with me but I can hardly stand to be around her. She gets angry if I say anything about her lifestyle. She cries and is obviously distraught that I don’t want to spend time with her.

She also has no regard for my feelings and expects me to show up at a wedding reception at her dad’s house. Her dad left me 21 years ago and was cheating on me… He has shown no remorse or guilt for what he did and was eventually excommunicated from a church. His attempts to apologize are a joke… I told her I would go if they chose a neutral place like a park, (but I still want nothing to do with him.) As you can tell this has been a long ordeal.

She rarely listens to me or follows my advice, she is in a lot of debt and insisted on going on trips to Europe twice, Florida several times, etc. on borrowed money. I refuse to help financially anymore. …

In addition to all this I have health problems that are made worse by stress and I am under Drs. orders to avoid stress, she is aware of this but it does not seem to matter. Where does a mother go to resign? I am considering going to counseling, but in the meantime I just want to be left alone.

Sincerely,

Mara*

Sorry, I’ve been warned you can’t resign from being a mother, but I do understand your frustration. Your daughter behaves in a pattern very familiar to me, and that strikes very close to home. In my case, we loved each other, and both wanted a relationship with the other, but despite her desire to still claim His name, Christ had come between us. My relative is currently not speaking to me—she’s afraid of me telling her child the truth about her sin someday—and you’ll understand why I actually felt relieved even as I wept for her. I imagine some might find it’s easier to be simply angry than to weep. I felt much the way you did. Being around her was all trial, and in truth, neither felt at all comfortable with the other. Our conversations, even when we managed to not argue or debate The Issue, were stiff, awkward, and too phony for me to stand indefinitely, yet I didn’t have the heart to do what the bible recommends for someone who claims to be of the brethren, yet walks in darkness. Let’s review:

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner-not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

–1co 5:9-13

Now, the church today goes to two extremes in approaching this scripture, we either toss it out the window as irrelevant to a modern church where the person will just decry us and move onto a different church, as if we have just now invented false teachers and itching ears.

Or, we add to the scripture our own traditions, and begin practicing this over differing convictions on matters of dress, Sabbath-keeping, and so forth. Such misuse and abuse is why this scripture has come to be so largely ignored. We prefer to talk about the scriptures calling us to love instead. Indeed, we hope Paul (and presumably god) had changed his mind about this when he wrote in the thirteenth chapter, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

Indeed he hadn’t changed his mind. But love does not mean enabling, in fact, enabling is the opposite of love. And there comes a time, as much as you love someone, they have chosen a lie and you must place a premium on your spiritual health-and the church’s—and not tolerate a lie. My relative, for a time, tried to say, “Okay, let’s just not talk about that.” Her intent was not a truce, but to find some way to drag me down into the lie she’d bought, or at least silence me and convince herself my continued relations with her meant I approved of her sin (the term lifestyle is a worldly invention that implies our moral choices can no more be judged than our hairstyle.) That is the nature of sin. It wants justified (i.e., accepted) and the deceived soul will use trickery, manipulation, and even black mail or out right force, if possible, to achieve that end.

The sad truth is, some people will not repent until they have suffered sufficient pain, which too often means until they hit rock bottom. When we have a relative like that, as Paul suggests, all we can do for them is pray, and get out of God’s way, which may mean utter silence. That normally would be a bad thing, but when someone is so deceived the devil is using everything you say against you, it can’t be any more foolhardy than continually fighting a battle you can’t win, but it’s wise to keep a phone line available, so you can be there for them when they do hit bottom (no I told you so, though). Just don’t try to interfere, lest you find yourself fighting God, or, worse, get taken down with them.

I do have one caution on applying 1 Cor 5:9-13, some will argue this is church discipline and hence inappropriate for family members to apply outside the context of the local church body. But let’s also remember Paul lived in a world where people didn’t move around like they do now, unless you were a merchant or a missionary like he was, and there was typically one church in your city to go to, which meant your family and friends, if believers, were all members of your church. The application of this scripture should never be done lightly, but with much prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

But neither should it be ignored.

Do go to counseling, though, Mara*, as I would be negligent if I didn’t mention, if you really want to reduce your stress level, a key step would be working out the anger and bitterness against your ex-husband, a process the church often likes to summarily call forgiveness, and label true biblical forgiveness as ‘reconciliation.’ Your forgiveness or lack thereof won’t change anything for him. If he is unrepentant, your hatred won’t leave him in a deeper pit of Hell anymore than you not hating him would get him out of Hell. If he is truly repentant and has given his life to Christ, no matter how laughable you might find his apologies, I guaranteed you God won’t be laughing, He’ll be shepherding His prodigal into the same Heaven we call Home.

Now, I have no way of knowing which is the case with your husband. Regardless, an angry, bitter, and hence critical, spirit will stress you out, ruin your health, destroy your relationship with God, and allows someone who hurt you to keep on hurting you, over and over and over again. A mother’s bitterness, as hard as this will be for you to hear, also poisons her children. Your daughter, now, she made her own choices in life, and she’s responsible for that, but could it be she learned a negative, bitter outlook at home? Believe me, though, I know how hard it can be to let go of bitterness—that’s why I encourage you to seek pastoral or Christian counseling—but you until you do let go of this bitter hatred, you will never heal.

You have a choice, Mara. You can keep laying your stress exclusively at the feet of your daughter, or you can recognize the true culprit stealing your peace and joy. To paraphrase our Savior, you need to get the beam out of your own eye, and then you’ll be able to see clear enough to deal with your daughter’s. It may not make her any less deceived or change what you need to do with her, but it will change your life, and only the Lord can say for certain what impact that would have on the world.

Love In Christ,
Andrea Graham

*not her real name

Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Bullwinkle Blog, The HILL Chronicles, and Adam’s Blog, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.