Lamentations 3:19-26  Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.  (20)  My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.  (21)  This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.  (22)  It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  (23) They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.  (24)  The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.  (25)  The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.  (26)  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

What keeps you going? When difficult times come. When there are problems that are bigger than you. It is because of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed. We can't do it without Him, not individually, congregationally, familially, or nationally. We are totally dependant on Him for every breath we take as Paul said on Mars' Hill, In Him we live and move and have our being. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths.

 

    As we look further into God's fatherhood, we need to understand a few things about Him. He always had and continues to have high expectations for His children. He is perfect and wants them to be perfect as well. Unfortunately, they never live up to those expectations. Even the best, most righteous children of God are still not perfect like Him. Noah was called 'perfect in his generation', but I am sure God was grading on the curve because Noah still needed grace. Even after the flood when the wicked people were all gone and it should have been easier to be good, Noah got drunk and naked and passed out in his tent. That certainly wasn't perfect, but God still loved Noah even though he couldn't live up to God's standards.
    It is good for us to have high expectations for our children because it does help them to become better than if we have lower expectations. The thing we have to learn from God's example is that we have to be merciful and gracious. When those little cherubs seem more like little demons we need to remember that they are young (foolishness is bound in the heart of a child - Proverbs 22:15), that we were young once, and that even though we are grown we still are not perfect. I know the struggle we have with wanting our children to be better than we are, but they are going to make mistakes. I remember one young teen who wanted desparately to become a Christian, but his mother, who was a Christian, wouldn't let him. When I asked her about it she explained that he had problems with his mouth and some other issues. In other words, he was not perfect and sinless. She wanted him to repent and straighten up his life and show her that he could live right before letting him be baptized. I asked her about how long she had been a Christian and whether she still said and did things that she shouldn't. She admitted that she had problems in some of these same areas that she wanted him to correct before he could be baptized. If we could straighten out our own lives why would we need a savior? That doesn't mean that this young man doesn't need to repent, but that even Christians are not perfect.
    If they become better than we are it will be because we have learned from our mistakes and have taught them to avoid some of the traps that caught us. In addition, it will be because we are open and honest about our imperfections and encourage them to follow others who are stronger in the areas where we are weak. We need to encourage our children to follow us as we follow Christ, and to follow Christ if they see us not following Him in some area.