Control

I have two sons, aged 24 and 21. One of the most difficult aspects of parenting adult sons (or daughters, I imagine) is a lack of control. When they were younger, we made the decisions for them. Now that they are adults, they make their own decisions. And we watch those decisions play out in their lives.

It's the way it has to be, isn't it? It's actually one of the main goals of raising them - that they could live a life, making their own decisions. 

Why are we sometimes reluctant to believe that God has given us free choice? If we can let go of our children - because doing so is in their best interest and our own - why are we reluctant to think that God doesn't do the same thing?  

Or do we on the one hand say, "We have free choice," and then on the other hand think, "Everything happens according to God's will - God is completely in control of all that happens." Do we believe the second statement and not the first, or do we miss that believing both things is a disconnect?

Adam Hamilton, in Half Truths, says, "God is more like a parent who invites his children to make their own choices, even knowing they will sometimes make the wrong ones." If that is true, and I believe it is, then we have responsiblity for the consequences in the world, and it's much harder to blame God for them.