Proverbs 24:16 (ESV)
“For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.”
It’s hard to rise again. Especially after a hard fall. My ADHD/ASD daughter once fell off a horse. If you gasped, thank you for your concern, but she managed to only bruise her butt and back a little. The helmet protected her head, and she didn’t break anything. I wasn’t there to witness the incident. Daddy was. He later told me how much restraint it took for him not to rush to her rescue and let her leave when she wanted to.
The instructor (who knew what she was doing) didn’t allow Kayla to leave until she got back on that horse’s back. According to my husband, Kayla cried and sputtered and protested, but eventually, she complied and climbed back on.
When Kayla came home from the lesson—with ice cream for being so brave—I decided to use this fall as a learning moment. I told her that we fall in life…A LOT. Sometimes we fall emotionally and have breakdowns. Falls can be physical, like the one she experienced, and spiritual, where we find ourselves in the pit of sin.
Wash, Rinse and Repeat
For three summers in a row (maybe four), my poor daughter has gotten poison ivy. Because it always ends up on her face, she requires steroids. Steroids and ADHD and autism don’t mix well. This is not sin, of course. Just a very annoying cycle. If you want a sin example, just look to God’s chosen people. Most of the New Testament is about them messing things up, getting the consequences, repenting, then messing up again.
We must be willing to rise again.
That’s the difference between the righteous versus the unrighteous: the willingness to overcome. Our righteousness comes from Christ living in us through our faith, so we don’t have to worry about whether we’re “good enough” for this scripture to apply to us. If we have Christ, we have his righteousness, so yes, we can get back on that saddle—so to speak.
It’s never too late to rise again.
The verse uses the number seven, which is associated with completeness. I believe that Proverbs 24:16 is saying we can fall completely and still rise again. We just need to be willing to repent and keep trying. I could list every sin related to and unrelated to parenting that I could think of, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing—absolutely NOTHING—can keep us down.
As parents, there are no mistakes too big to rise from. Let’s remember this about our children too. Don’t hold them down. Forgive and let them rise again.
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