March 12, 2025 – The Pain of a Prodigal

Mercy Every Minute

Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor

Where’s the Reward?

There is a deep pain you would love to forget, but it is etched in your inner being. You feel it rise in a fresh way at the sound or sight or thought of your child, and the heaviness of heart crushes you. The pain of a prodigal. If you are experiencing this pain, here are some things to remember. 

1. Your reward is found in God Himself, not in your child.

After all the years of sowing the Word of God into our prodigal’s heart—has it all been in vain? Are we putting our hope in our own efforts and looking for an earthly reward for those efforts? God Himself is our reward. “Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against You?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God.’” (Malachi 3:13). “Fear not … I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1).

2. What we believe about God should be greater than what we believe about our child.

To believe that our child is unreachable is to put more faith in our own thoughts than in the God Who created the universe. Who is greater: the prodigal or His Maker? Nothing is too hard for Him. “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).

3. Where to find help.

We have one place to run: God alone. When your earth is shaking, God will be your strong fortress. 

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:1-2).

4. We can love the prodigal; not their sin.

Unconditional love lets them go, but watches in hope for their return. The prodigal’s father in Luke ran to his son even though he didn’t know if his heart was changed yet or not. Our love is so fickle. Only God’s love is eternal and unconditional. Though we hate the sin that entangles them, we love our prodigal enough to do battle for their souls in effectual, fervent, daily prayer. 

Let me know if I can pray with you for your prodigal,

~Deborah

Read the rest of the story at The Pain of a Prodigal, 7 Lessons Learned.

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Adam and Dianne Riveiro

The Patience of the Prodigal’s Father

He slowly walked to the top of a small hill . . . again. Each day, the knoll felt a cubit or so taller than it had the day before. For a long time, he followed the same routine: waking up early, walking to the top of the hill, and sitting down with a strange mixture of indescribable sadness and indomitable hope.

Every day, as he left the house, he felt the eyes of others watching him—his son’s scarcely hidden aggravation (his other son, that is) and his servants’ pity. In their own way, they all wondered the same thing: How long will he continue to watch for his wayward son to come home? When will he finally give in and give up?

This is how I imagine the Prodigal Son’s father acted as he waited for his precious child to return home.

You know what happens next. Luke 15:20 says, “ . . . but when [the prodigal] was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”

I have to level with you—by the grace of God neither Dianne nor I know the pain of being the parents of a prodigal. But I have been in pastoral ministry for twenty years, both as a pastor and a youth pastor, and the first thing prodigal parents lose is their hope.

Your prodigal may be spending a long time in a far country. It could be years or even decades. But be patient and live in hope. Don’t give in to the naysayers who tell you to move on (even if those naysayers are in your own family). Don’t allow the passage of time to steal your hope.

I can’t promise you that your prodigal will come back to Jesus, but I can promise you that there’s still hope that they will—even if you can’t see it now.

Live in hope!

-Adam

About the author

Pastor Adam and Dianne Riveiro live in Easton, Massachusetts, where Adam serves as the pastor of Liberty Baptist Church. Together, they’ve authored several books, including their newest book Ministering to YOUR Children with Special Needs, published by Ready Scribe Publications. Parents to four amazing kids—Bethany, Kaylee, AJ, and Peyton—the Riveiros are deeply committed to helping special needs families discover joy and contentment through Christ.

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Beth Mora

My Pain—A Gift From God

I’m sitting alone on the side of my bed. My bedroom door closed and locked. The pain is so palpable that I slip down to my knees, bury my head in the covers of my bed, and desperately cry out to God, “Why is this happening? . . . Help me . . . what am I going to do? . . . ” 

Anyone who has felt the ache and sting of a child making wrong decisions and walking away from all your family values and faith knows what I am talking about.

And it is this throbbing rawness for which I am most thankful. I sit before a mighty God and fall apart in His throne room, the safest place I know. 

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” Hebrews 4:16 (KJV).

I cry. I yell. I whimper. It’s not pretty. There’s no false pretense. It is stripped away from me before my God. Faith mixes in with my emotions like one of King David’s psalms. 

Pain is a powerful gift from God, a gift I often instantaneously reject, as most do. I don’t like pain, and yet it is this bedside-falling-to-my-knees moment where God does His deepest work in me. It is this kind of deep pain that God uses to illuminate my soul when I come to Him, and as King David says in Psalm 36:9, “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light (KJV).”

It’s in these painful moments that I see my own sin—sin I must repent of and for which I must seek the forgiveness of others.

It’s in my pain where God can comfort me and dry my tears.

It’s in my pain that I admit my deepest needs and that I am powerless over the situation. 

In my pain, I learn that my prodigal cannot see the dangers before him nor the trail of torment he has caused when I say, “Father, forgive my son; he does not know what he is doing.”

It is in my pain that God shows me I’m not alone.

In my pain, God gives me the strength to open my arms and wait for my prodigal’s return. 

The hope and strength for this journey are found in our good heavenly Father, who waits for you with outstretched arms. 

About the author

Beth Mora is a staff writer for The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC and lesson designer for www.Schoolhouseteachers.com. She is the creator/teacher-on-camera for Here to Help Learning’s Homeschool Writing Program Grades 1-6, and a homeschool conference and women’s events speaker. Meet up with Beth at Home To Home, one of her favorite places to encourage. Everything she does, whether laughable or heart-gripping, is done to honor her Lord and Savior, Jesus. God’s grace is the salve that has healed her own life and is what she offers liberally to others.

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Roger Smith

A Prodigal’s Pain

Most of us think of the prodigal causing pain. But think differently with me for a minute. I’ve seen up close and personal the pain that we cause for the prodigal in our families.

As we try really hard to raise our children right, adjusting the errors of our own parents, we want our children to turn out great, and we wish for their well‑being. When that seems to be rejected, we try harder, with greater intensity or greater volume.

Our noble attempts often lead us down a path of rejection. Even pleas with our child who is wayward can have the unintended result of driving him or her to the pig’s sty, or any place to get away from our pressure.

If your child is pulling away from you, open your eyes to the pain they are experiencing. Grow in compassion. Seek understanding of your child in any way you can find. 

There is no simple formula, but we do have a great Model. Study His life, His heart, His responses, His sacrifices for His wayward followers. And find hope. Hope for your family. Hope for your child.

About the author

Dr. Roger Smith is a family doctor in rural Louisiana, where he and his wife, Jan, raised four adventurous children who are all grown, making their own mark in the world. He speaks and writes on parenting issues and produces brief videos that can be found on Facebook @ParentingMattersNow.

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