Silas
Beloved of All
Your burden for your family is heard, and the exhaustion and sorrow you describe over these years of division and disrespect are understood. It is painful to watch a child you raised to love the Lord, to be gracious and humble and grateful, begin to reflect a different spirit, to grow distant from family and from faith, and to carry a weight that was never hers to carry. God sees what is happening in your home, and He hears your cry for protection, peace, and restoration.
Scripture promises that God is a shield to those who trust Him. You have asked for His hedge of protection, His holy angels, and the full armor of God over you and your children, and that is a biblical prayer. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, and no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding can guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, and you can ask Him to fill your home with His light, to set His presence in every room and over every doorway, and to keep you in safety wherever you go.
At the heart of what you are facing is a truth that runs through all of Scripture. Your relationship with God is primary, and every other relationship rests upon it. The first commandments concern our walk with God, and unless that vertical relationship is right, our relationships with one another cannot be right. When the center is out of balance, everything else becomes out of balance. When that center is restored, other relationships begin to come back into order. For your older daughter, the deepest need is not first a better relationship with family or with work, but a return to her first love with Jesus. God does not want a distant, legal or ritual relationship. He wants a close, living, loving relationship where she knows Him as Father and is adopted into His family. He wants her to love Him and to know how deeply she is loved by Him. Pray that her hunger for righteousness would be renewed, that she would again delight in His Word and in fellowship with His people, and that from that restored walk with Him, honor for parents, faithfulness in work, and clarity about her future would follow.
That is why Scripture puts such weight on honoring father and mother. It is the first commandment that deals with our relationships with people, and God gave it a place of great priority in the home. A daughter who is walking closely with the Lord will want to honor her parents, to be thankful, and to listen to godly counsel.
Part of that godly counsel concerns marriage itself. From the beginning God established marriage as a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and He reserved sexual intimacy and living together as husband and wife for within that covenant. This is not a matter of tradition but of His loving design to protect and bless a family. When that design is set aside, Scripture shows that difficulties always follow. Even in the early accounts of families who departed from that pattern, we see jealousy, rivalry, and strife entering the home. Living together outside of marriage is not the same as marriage, and we cannot ask God to bless it as if it were. Instead we ask Him to open eyes to the truth, to bring conviction and repentance, and to lead out of deception, manipulation, financial exploitation, and spiritual bondage into freedom. This young man is not her husband, not her father, and not her spiritual head, and the burden she carries to provide for him and to obey his family is not a burden God has placed on her. Pray that she would see that she is a child of the Most High God, that she has a supportive family, a church family, and purposeful work that God has given her, and that she does not need to change her faith or abandon what she was taught to gain the approval of others.
The influence you describe from this young man and his mother is a clear example of ungodly counsel. Scripture warns that the ungodly are like chaff which the wind drives away and that they will not stand in the judgment, and it calls us not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Their words have encouraged what God calls sin, such as living together and considering children before marriage, and have sown division, isolation, jealousy, and control. It is right to pray that God would expose those motives, frustrate every plan to divide and isolate your family, and remove that controlling hold. God knows how to deliver the righteous even when they are vexed by the manner of life around them. As He told Jacob to return to the land of his fathers and to his family with the promise that He would be with him, so He can lead your daughter back to a place of safety, stability, and wisdom, not with shame but with freedom and restoration.
For your younger daughter, pray that she would remain steadfast, that God would put a hedge around her heart, her studies, her health, and her faith, and surround her with godly friendships and mentors who encourage her in the Lord. Pray that she would never see living together outside of marriage as an acceptable path, and that when the time comes she would seek a spouse who honors the Lord and who will love as Christ loves the church, and that she would not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
For your son, be assured that he is not a burden or an embarrassment. He is a blessing, deeply loved by God and by you, and his life is valuable. Every spirit of hatred, mockery, and exclusion directed toward him is evil and is to be rejected. Pray that God would saturate him with peace and joy, grant him patience and help in using his language to express his needs in a godly manner, and restore the loving bond he once shared with his sister. Pray for wisdom for you, for caregivers, doctors, and all who help bring out the best in him each day.
For yourself, pray for strength, wisdom, and discernment not to be worn down by worry or fear. God promises to supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus, not for selfish gain but so your family may be a testimony of His provision and a blessing to others. He promises to fight for you.
May the Lord frustrate every scheme to divide, isolate, and corrupt your family, break every false obligation and stubborn hold, remove every generational and spoken curse, and cover you with the blood of Jesus. May He gently remove your older daughter from this entangling relationship, open her eyes to the red flags she has ignored, heal what has been wounded, mend what has been torn, and restore unity, joy, fellowship, and togetherness to your home. May your family be a beacon of His light in all you do, filled with the Holy Spirit, with every dark place flooded with His light, in the mighty name of Jesus.
Scripture promises that God is a shield to those who trust Him. You have asked for His hedge of protection, His holy angels, and the full armor of God over you and your children, and that is a biblical prayer. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, and no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding can guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, and you can ask Him to fill your home with His light, to set His presence in every room and over every doorway, and to keep you in safety wherever you go.
At the heart of what you are facing is a truth that runs through all of Scripture. Your relationship with God is primary, and every other relationship rests upon it. The first commandments concern our walk with God, and unless that vertical relationship is right, our relationships with one another cannot be right. When the center is out of balance, everything else becomes out of balance. When that center is restored, other relationships begin to come back into order. For your older daughter, the deepest need is not first a better relationship with family or with work, but a return to her first love with Jesus. God does not want a distant, legal or ritual relationship. He wants a close, living, loving relationship where she knows Him as Father and is adopted into His family. He wants her to love Him and to know how deeply she is loved by Him. Pray that her hunger for righteousness would be renewed, that she would again delight in His Word and in fellowship with His people, and that from that restored walk with Him, honor for parents, faithfulness in work, and clarity about her future would follow.
That is why Scripture puts such weight on honoring father and mother. It is the first commandment that deals with our relationships with people, and God gave it a place of great priority in the home. A daughter who is walking closely with the Lord will want to honor her parents, to be thankful, and to listen to godly counsel.
Part of that godly counsel concerns marriage itself. From the beginning God established marriage as a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and He reserved sexual intimacy and living together as husband and wife for within that covenant. This is not a matter of tradition but of His loving design to protect and bless a family. When that design is set aside, Scripture shows that difficulties always follow. Even in the early accounts of families who departed from that pattern, we see jealousy, rivalry, and strife entering the home. Living together outside of marriage is not the same as marriage, and we cannot ask God to bless it as if it were. Instead we ask Him to open eyes to the truth, to bring conviction and repentance, and to lead out of deception, manipulation, financial exploitation, and spiritual bondage into freedom. This young man is not her husband, not her father, and not her spiritual head, and the burden she carries to provide for him and to obey his family is not a burden God has placed on her. Pray that she would see that she is a child of the Most High God, that she has a supportive family, a church family, and purposeful work that God has given her, and that she does not need to change her faith or abandon what she was taught to gain the approval of others.
The influence you describe from this young man and his mother is a clear example of ungodly counsel. Scripture warns that the ungodly are like chaff which the wind drives away and that they will not stand in the judgment, and it calls us not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Their words have encouraged what God calls sin, such as living together and considering children before marriage, and have sown division, isolation, jealousy, and control. It is right to pray that God would expose those motives, frustrate every plan to divide and isolate your family, and remove that controlling hold. God knows how to deliver the righteous even when they are vexed by the manner of life around them. As He told Jacob to return to the land of his fathers and to his family with the promise that He would be with him, so He can lead your daughter back to a place of safety, stability, and wisdom, not with shame but with freedom and restoration.
For your younger daughter, pray that she would remain steadfast, that God would put a hedge around her heart, her studies, her health, and her faith, and surround her with godly friendships and mentors who encourage her in the Lord. Pray that she would never see living together outside of marriage as an acceptable path, and that when the time comes she would seek a spouse who honors the Lord and who will love as Christ loves the church, and that she would not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
For your son, be assured that he is not a burden or an embarrassment. He is a blessing, deeply loved by God and by you, and his life is valuable. Every spirit of hatred, mockery, and exclusion directed toward him is evil and is to be rejected. Pray that God would saturate him with peace and joy, grant him patience and help in using his language to express his needs in a godly manner, and restore the loving bond he once shared with his sister. Pray for wisdom for you, for caregivers, doctors, and all who help bring out the best in him each day.
For yourself, pray for strength, wisdom, and discernment not to be worn down by worry or fear. God promises to supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus, not for selfish gain but so your family may be a testimony of His provision and a blessing to others. He promises to fight for you.
May the Lord frustrate every scheme to divide, isolate, and corrupt your family, break every false obligation and stubborn hold, remove every generational and spoken curse, and cover you with the blood of Jesus. May He gently remove your older daughter from this entangling relationship, open her eyes to the red flags she has ignored, heal what has been wounded, mend what has been torn, and restore unity, joy, fellowship, and togetherness to your home. May your family be a beacon of His light in all you do, filled with the Holy Spirit, with every dark place flooded with His light, in the mighty name of Jesus.
