Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects a heart that wants what is wise and holy for your daughter and for your home, and God hears that kind of praying.
Wisdom is the most important thing to seek in a decision like this. Knowledge gives facts, but wisdom knows what to do with those facts. Scripture personifies wisdom as calling out openly in the streets, wanting to be found, and it teaches that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. When Solomon was offered anything he wanted, he asked for wisdom, and God was pleased to give it. You can ask the same way for your daughter. Pray that God will give her clear eyes to ponder the path of her feet and to weigh the real costs you mentioned, her health, her full schedule, the care of her dog, and the financial burden, and to see whether a move would bring peace or add stress and hardship. A wise person looks straight ahead, considers where each step leads, and is willing to turn away from a path that does not lead to good, not turning to the right or to the left but removing the foot from evil.
Part of that wisdom is recognizing the power of flattering words and persistent pressure. Scripture warns that such words can draw a person aside, and it urges us to say to wisdom, you are my sister, and to call understanding close kin, so that we are kept from those who would flatter and mislead. The wisdom that comes from above is very different from the wisdom of this world. Worldly wisdom is earthly and self seeking and brings envy and strife, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to listen, full of mercy and good fruit. When your daughter walks in that kind of wisdom, she will be able to deliver herself like a deer from the hunter's hand and like a bird from the snare, turning away from the path that brings strife and division and choosing the way that leads to peace.
You also prayed for love, respect, gratitude and peace to be restored between you and your children, and for what has been broken to be healed. At the heart of every strained relationship is our relationship with God. The first commands concern our walk with Him, and when that is made right, our relationships with others can begin to be made right as well. Laws and counsel alone cannot untangle what is topsy turvy in a home if the heart is not first close to the Lord. The Lord once described His people turning from Him as unfaithfulness, because He desires not a legal, distant relationship but a loving one. As you and your children draw nearer to Him, wanting to know how close you can live to Him rather than how close to the world you can live, He works to soften hearts, teach patience, and restore what has been hurt. Training a child in the way she should go is a long work that requires the same patience as teaching a child to walk. You expect stumbles and you guard against falls, but you keep guiding with love and truth, trusting that what is planted in youth God can bring to fruit in later years.
For protection, you prayed well. Scripture says to keep the heart with all diligence, and to put on the full armor of God, and it promises that God gives His angels charge over His people and that no weapon formed against His children will finally prosper. That does not mean a child of God will have no problems or battles, but it does mean God will deliver through them. He is sovereign even over small details, just as He used a decree that moved a family from Nazareth to Bethlehem to fulfill what He had spoken, so He can guide and overrule in the practical details of where your daughter lives. Continue to ask Him to place a hedge around you and your children, to guard her mind and heart, to give her sweet and peaceful sleep at night, and to bless her studies this semester with true understanding. Knowledge is good, but pray above all that she will love wisdom and keep it, for wisdom will preserve her and keep her.
May the Lord grant you gratefulness even in this strain, keeping your own heart stayed on Him, and may He answer with clear guidance for your daughter, deliverance from every influence that would prey upon her and bring havoc into your home, and a renewed peace and respect in your family as you all walk more closely with Jesus.
Wisdom is the most important thing to seek in a decision like this. Knowledge gives facts, but wisdom knows what to do with those facts. Scripture personifies wisdom as calling out openly in the streets, wanting to be found, and it teaches that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. When Solomon was offered anything he wanted, he asked for wisdom, and God was pleased to give it. You can ask the same way for your daughter. Pray that God will give her clear eyes to ponder the path of her feet and to weigh the real costs you mentioned, her health, her full schedule, the care of her dog, and the financial burden, and to see whether a move would bring peace or add stress and hardship. A wise person looks straight ahead, considers where each step leads, and is willing to turn away from a path that does not lead to good, not turning to the right or to the left but removing the foot from evil.
Part of that wisdom is recognizing the power of flattering words and persistent pressure. Scripture warns that such words can draw a person aside, and it urges us to say to wisdom, you are my sister, and to call understanding close kin, so that we are kept from those who would flatter and mislead. The wisdom that comes from above is very different from the wisdom of this world. Worldly wisdom is earthly and self seeking and brings envy and strife, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to listen, full of mercy and good fruit. When your daughter walks in that kind of wisdom, she will be able to deliver herself like a deer from the hunter's hand and like a bird from the snare, turning away from the path that brings strife and division and choosing the way that leads to peace.
You also prayed for love, respect, gratitude and peace to be restored between you and your children, and for what has been broken to be healed. At the heart of every strained relationship is our relationship with God. The first commands concern our walk with Him, and when that is made right, our relationships with others can begin to be made right as well. Laws and counsel alone cannot untangle what is topsy turvy in a home if the heart is not first close to the Lord. The Lord once described His people turning from Him as unfaithfulness, because He desires not a legal, distant relationship but a loving one. As you and your children draw nearer to Him, wanting to know how close you can live to Him rather than how close to the world you can live, He works to soften hearts, teach patience, and restore what has been hurt. Training a child in the way she should go is a long work that requires the same patience as teaching a child to walk. You expect stumbles and you guard against falls, but you keep guiding with love and truth, trusting that what is planted in youth God can bring to fruit in later years.
For protection, you prayed well. Scripture says to keep the heart with all diligence, and to put on the full armor of God, and it promises that God gives His angels charge over His people and that no weapon formed against His children will finally prosper. That does not mean a child of God will have no problems or battles, but it does mean God will deliver through them. He is sovereign even over small details, just as He used a decree that moved a family from Nazareth to Bethlehem to fulfill what He had spoken, so He can guide and overrule in the practical details of where your daughter lives. Continue to ask Him to place a hedge around you and your children, to guard her mind and heart, to give her sweet and peaceful sleep at night, and to bless her studies this semester with true understanding. Knowledge is good, but pray above all that she will love wisdom and keep it, for wisdom will preserve her and keep her.
May the Lord grant you gratefulness even in this strain, keeping your own heart stayed on Him, and may He answer with clear guidance for your daughter, deliverance from every influence that would prey upon her and bring havoc into your home, and a renewed peace and respect in your family as you all walk more closely with Jesus.
