Being a dad is great! There are so many enjoyable things about being a dad, not the least of which is looking back over the lives of your children and seeing how they have grown and matured. One of the reasons such reflections are so gratifying is because of the diligence and difficulty it took to get them to where they are. Through it all, one of the dominant root struggles for parents in helping our children to develop is the process of getting them to trust us as parents. This process of learning to trust is a fragile thing. Every child has parental reliability confirmed to them along the way in such cases as: trying a food we assure them will not make them sick, or floating in the deep end of the pool realizing they did not drown, or advancing to the next grade in school was the right move. Every new challenge for kids brings another opportunity for a parent to show off their insightful wisdom in directing our uncertain child in the right paths of life and so growing our child’s confidence in us. The only problem seems to be that by the time they start trusting us more, they have started getting more independent, and their over self-confidence makes them presume to know better than a misunderstanding parent. Their small strides in maturity seem to them as great leaps in mental accomplishment, even to the point that they see little else needs to be added by their parental guidance. That’s a long way of saying they become a “know it all”, and feel that they have “arrived” in some sense, and that parents are now just barriers to them expressing their superior understanding on life. Of course their assumed certainties soon vanish as they step into shoes too big for them and fall. In those moments a child, startled by their failure, seem to be humbled, even if but for a brief moment, and recognize that parents do know best. Even if the child does not verbalize it, their eyes confess “ok, you were right again, I believe you now”. But every parent knows that the child’s humble confession of trust will soon be tested in the near future. Is not this the very parental heart of our Lord behind His question in the verse above, “Do ye now believe?” As you read the book of John you will discover that the Lord Jesus has been in private session with His Apostles from Chapter 13 through Chapter 16, counseling them on the great themes of life, the night before he was crucified. As Jesus ended his discourse on the nature of His person, His return to the Father, and the coming of the Spirit, the disciples took it all in and asserted to the Lord that, “NOW we get it and believe that you are who you say you are.” But after spending three years with these guys, Jesus just looks at their over confidence and says “Do you now believe?” He was not asking for an answer, but questioning the sincerity of their claimed faith. He then informed them that that night they would scatter in fear and doubt. So where are we in our trust of God? Is our independence causing us to second guess His Wisdom? Are our claims to faith just shallow assertions? Or have we proved Him oft enough, and failed ourselves long enough, to resign ourselves once and for all to trust Him fervently and finally? --Bro. Scott