What if your prodigal child never comes home?
Many Christians are familiar with the story of the prodigal son in the Bible. Among other things, it is a story of forgiveness and redemption. It gives parents hope. What do you tell the parent who's child never came home? The child who stayed in the pig sty and shunned their parents? How do you comfort them?
I really like this question. I must admit that I had to look up what "prodigal" means.
It's similar to the play, The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.
There is a danger with stories like this that people in real life can be cast in the roles of characters like "prodigal son" because it becomes convenient to the parents.
I desperately want to be part of my parent's life and I want my son to be part of their life. They are wasteful and indulgent and and I am very frugal and careful with the precious resources God has given to us.
Even close family members are sure I'm the prodigal child, and they're so far off it's trajic. I'm not welcome in my parent's house whatsoever. My parents are always welcome to come stay with me. Even if I was the prodigal son, and I'm not, my parents would never allow me to come home.
It's funny because I'm a cab driver and my sister's a teacher; like my dad. She flies all over the world and blows all sorts of money on wasteful consumer goods and impulse purchases. She has never met her six year old nephew. She is the real prodigal child. She, of course, is welcome in my parent's house.
I have owned houses mortgage-free twice before I turned 40. My sister pays $1500 a month or so in rent and has never owned anything. I'm a cab driver and she's a teacher. Go figure.
If you are a believer then we must exercise faith in God's Word and prayer. Never stop praying for your children - see Job's importunity. Even in the story of prodigal child there must be a rationalization by the wayward child of the state that they are in and the need to reach out to the hand of forgiveness that God offers.
Ultimately, the responsibility is the child's to recognize their state and seek forgiveness. It is our responsibility as parents to go before God in prayer for our children and make His Word known to them so the seed.
Really, the parable is a picture of God's love to us and as parents, it's a great example of love and forgiveness that we would benefit from to emulate in our relationships with our own children.
With regards to comfort, you can only comfort someone that wants to be comforted (whether explicitly displayed or implicitly) and I personally don't believe it's right to encourage someone in something that will ultimately bring them harm - this is not shunning but it's disagreeing with a course of action.
I was the "Prodigal son" that shamed my parents for years before coming to a saving knowledge of God's love and grace. I ultimately went back home and asked their forgivenes.When my own son went that way, all we could do was turn him over to God.
you pray for that child, and if you are a Christian.... you turn to God for comfort. God made us all to be free moral agents- that child has to determine whether to change their lifestyle... and... you pray with and for the parents.
First of all, as long as that parent is alive, there's hope they will see their child come home. If we're speaking of their child's spiritual connection with God, then I would encourage that parent that as long as that child is alive, there's hope they will renew their spiritual walk with God. We need to hold onto hope, for it's on hope that we build faith. If we truly believe God never fails, then we should stand on the faithfulness of God!
by Dave McClure 13 years ago
My take on the prodigal son parable, from the point of view of the fatted calf (except that I've made it a fatted pig, just for fun)The Fatted PorkerI liked the lad. He always had a smile,a whistle on his lips, and used to waitand watch us eat. Oh, you can call it swillbut I'm not proud. For if it...
by SwordofManticorE 12 years ago
Would it be fair to say that the sin of Adam had a greater impact on God's creation than the resurrection life of Christ?
by Clayton 8 years ago
Should Parents have any right in deciding their childs future?I believe every child should be open to the possibility to pursuing whatever they should wish, once they're mature enough. There are many parents that want the best for their child and yet its not what they want to do or are good...
by Michael Valencia 11 years ago
Do you believe that "what goes around comes around"?Is there some kind of cosmic justice in which good deeds are ultimately rewarded and likewise, bad deeds ultimately get punished? If you have been wronged by someone, do you feel the need to get revenge?
by Thundermama 12 years ago
Would you write an emergency letter for your child to read as a comfort in the event of disaster?In California more and more schools are asking parents to send in a "natural disaster," or "emergency," letter with the children. The idea behind it is that your child would be able...
by Nrjsh 13 years ago
Why good people has to suffer a lot in his life?If there is any God,why does he have to test a person and make him suffer even if he haven't done anything wrong in his life...
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |