THE WALKING STICK

We will all make mistakes. For it is in these mistakes that we are shaped and it is in these mistakes that we find our deliverance.

How many fathers want their children to grow up self-reliant and strong? How many fathers want their children to have the strength of character to make their own way in this world? The very purpose of a parent is to help his child use his wings to fly, not drop from the nest like a stone!

You want this for your children because you want them to survive in a disinterested and heartless world. Survive and "make it," if you will, even better than you did.

That is why you let them fend for themselves as much as their mounting strength will allow, stepping in only when you think it necessary.

It is painful for you to watch, but you want them to be tried, you want them to face adversity, you want them to develop mettle, you want them to be able to stand against the storms.

So it is with God. Allowing you to be exposed, standing back when you wish with all your heart that he would step in causes a snapping of the sinews that is godawful wretched.