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The Vicarage
Dear Friends
Last week thousands of young people around the country received their A’ level results and had their plans for further education confirmed or called into question. It is an anxious time for those young people and their families. It is right that we congratulate them on their achievements and the hard work that made it all possible including the commitment and dedication of their teachers. Later this week it is the turn of GCSE candidates to endure this August ritual and beginning this year, it will touch the Keighley household directly over the next four summers, as first my son and then my daughter go through this coming of age.
Even as an interested parent I am aware of how little I know about my children’s education as they get older. The science has left me behind and the maths gets harder and harder, though I can still manage the occasional suggestion when it comes to religious studies. However there is more to this than my academic limitations, for the truth is that my children choose to tell me less these days. Rightly and properly they are assuming responsibility for their own lives and education. As parents we can encourage and occasionally cajole but we must also learn to let go – to control less, to trust more and to go on loving. Sometimes that is easier said than done with fraught sons and laid back daughters – or is it the other way round?
Being a parent has never been easy. At Morning Prayer this week I have been reading the story of King David and his son Absalom, whom he continued to love despite his rebellion and news of whose death he greets with these haunting words “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son.” (2 Samuel 18:33)
The Bible also describes the relationship between God and humanity as that between parent and child. There are times when we are to be nourished as a child at the breast but God too knows the pain of letting go and gives us the freedom to make our own way. God trusts and knows the sadness and the pain of trust betrayed, whilst never ceasing to love. Sadly human parents do not always match God’s selfless constancy.
We hold in our prayers the young people of our families, our Church, our community and we remember those who care for them and about them. Help us to trust each other and to know what it is to love and be loved, as God our Heavenly Father and Mother loves his children.
Lord of all life, we pray that as the young people in each new generation discover your world in their own way, their energies may be used creatively and their choices based on what is true and of real value. As they face the future and all that it holds for them, help them to discover your purpose for their lives, that they may find their true fulfilment in your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Martin Keighley
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