W & D

“When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters” Genesis 5:21-13.

This verse has always made me smile. It seems that Enoch walked with God after he became a father. Enoch knew that something had to change in his life after having children. He began to seek God’s wisdom. I wonder how many parents have begun to walk with God when their children became teens. I was never more aware of my need for wisdom than when I was raising teenagers. Faced with the realization that we needed more of God’s help, several friends and I decided to faithfully pray together for our high schoolers. We had been in prayer groups while our children were in elementary school, but our prayers took on a greater urgency as they got older. What did we pray for? Mostly, wisdom and discernment.

Wisdom is distinct from knowledge. I had been steadily gaining knowledge of God in my Bible studies and devotions. I had knowledge of God’s promises of hope and comfort. I had knowledge of God’s commands. Wisdom, however, was necessary to help me determine when to use the knowledge I had. As humans we have limited understanding. “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” James 13:17. I knew I needed God’s wisdom to understand how I could guide my teens in this very uncertain world.

In my prayer group, as we shared our prayer requests, too often we lacked the right words to express what we needed, so we would simply pray for wisdom and discernment. We prayed so often for wisdom and discernment that one friend decided we should just abbreviate this prayer request to God. It became “W & D”:

W & D for our conversations with our teens

W & D for the boundaries we should set

W & D for their protection

W & D for direction

I can’t tell you how often a prayer request would be texted or emailed from one of us with just W & D. I certainly wasn’t a perfect parent, but God was faithful, and He blessed me over and over again as I sought His help. I am not sure how I would have survived those years without His wisdom and discernment. My children are grown now, but my need for W & D has not expired. I need it every day, and I love that I have a God who never tires hearing from me.  

James 1:5 states, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

So the next time you are at a loss as to what to do, what to say, or where to go in order to follow God’s will, ask Him for W & D. He will know what you mean!

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