The image shows a father and his older son with game controllers in hand. The son’s two-year old is in the background crying up a storm. On the screen, a difficult video game level flashes “GAME OVER – CONTINUE?” The son looks frustrated, weighed down by challenges that go far beyond the game. The father looks on knowing it isn’t about the game, wishing he had the perfect advice.

“Too bad life doesn’t come with a strategy guide.”

Every parent eventually discovers that the need to help doesn’t end when children grow up. In many ways, the challenges become more difficult. As an adult child navigates career decisions, relationships, financial pressures, parenting, family responsibilities, and questions about faith, a parent often wishes he had all the right answers.

It’s easy to find tutorials for a video game. A quick search can reveal the best strategy, the hidden shortcuts, and the next move. But real life doesn’t work that way. There are no cheat codes for disappointment, no walkthroughs for major decisions, and no guaranteed path through life’s toughest levels.

Parents never stop caring about their children, no matter how old they become. Often parents offer unwanted advice or yet another “life lesson.” And when life feels overwhelming, both parents and adult children find themselves searching for something more reliable than their own experience—a trusted source of wisdom, guidance, and direction when there seems to be no strategy guide in sight. The search is for something that will help not hinder relationships.

Every parent is faced with many dilemmas, frustrations, and heartaches throughout life, and it seems like sometimes there is nowhere to turn for “The Ultimate Instruction.”

But in actuality instructions ARE available. It’s just that so many parents either don’t know or avoid the help. It’s called the Word of God.

You see, we parents don’t create children. God does. Science can explain the process to some degree. But only the Creator can create new life. He knows us before our birth. He gives us life.

Now, along with that new life, He wants to bless parents and children with a deeply caring relationship that will last for time and eternity.

First and foremost, the Lord God made it possible for our family bonds to last forever. God the Father sent his one-and-only Son to bring forgiveness for all of our wrongs. He rescued the world from death and hell, and gave us the gift of heaven on top of it all! It’s a “done deal” through the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus!

Now when your family has Jesus in the center of its life, that makes for a loving and rewarding home life, too. Not easy, not trouble free, but richly blessed. Cling to him. Comfort each other. Build each other up knowing we are loved by our Heavenly Father.

His instructions really WORK! If you could list every valuable piece of advice from podcasts, books, newspapers, radio talk show hosts, and clinical counselors, you’d find that all the best advice has been said before—in the Bible!

Consider, for example, this one piece of advice from the Apostle Paul: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as in Christ God forgave you” Ephesians 4:32.

Is it “Game Over”? Don’t toss the instructions away just yet. Start over. Read the Bible first. It works.

Bible Verses

• Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
• Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
• Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
• Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29
• For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:9-12
• Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged; parents are the pride of their children, Proverbs 17:6
• But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— Psalm 103:17