What Else Can I Do to Encourage My Daughter to Go to Church?

Q: My daughter has searched for happiness and joy in all kinds of relationships. Disappointment follows and sends her into deep depression. I keep trying to tell her to look for a deeper satisfaction — perhaps at church. What else can I encourage her to do? — D.M.

A: Some years ago there was a popular song with the lyric, “I’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.” What a profound statement. What an insight into the one who penned such a thought.

A Christian song puts the despair of looking for love in the wrong place in perspective: “You have searched in vain for something; now you don’t want that something you’ve found.”

Satisfaction falls short when people look for it in the things of this world. There was once a bumper sticker that said, “All I want is a little more than I have now.”

The lyrics of a Christian song convey great hope: “Put Jesus first in your life, and (He) will turn your life around.” Order is very important in most everything we do. By putting Jesus Christ and His will at the center of life, things fall into place. When Christ is anywhere but first place, life will be upside down.

Millions of young people are shifting from one side to the other. They are like unguided missiles filled with energy and ambition and yet somehow not “fitting in.” Peer pressure leads them astray and disappointment meets them there. We should “no longer be children, tossed to and fro” (Ephesians 4:14).

While church should be an important part of people’s lives, the most important thing is to have a personal relationship with the Savior and grow in His grace.

========

(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)

(c)2019 BILLY GRAHAM DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.