Parenting is challenging and even the best of parents cannot guarantee that their children will turn out to be everything they hope for. Even if you had been the perfect parent, they can still choose a life of sin, because God gave each of us the gift of choice. Parents have such a short time to influence their children, teaching them right from wrong, how to make responsible decisions, choose good friends, and most importantly, how to have a relationship with Jesus. However, once your child has grown to the age of accountability, they have the right to make their own choices. One of the greatest heartaches a parent can experience is when their child walks away from God. Oh! how hard it is to watch them go down that dark and dangerous path. And then it gets even worse when the guilt sets in questioning if it is your fault, and wondering if only you had been a better parent, things would have been different. But don't board that parent guilt train. It's not your fault that they walked away, it was their choice. However, there is something you can do and that is to pray. God will honor your prayers long after you are gone so start depositing prayers for your children in the prayer bank in heaven. You can claim this promise in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old, he will not depart from it”. Never forget that God loves your children even more than you do. And He can't imagine heaven without them.
Proverbs 1:8 KJV - My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
Psalm 127:3-4 KJV - Lo, children [are] an heritage of the LORD: [and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward. As arrows [are] in the hand of a mighty man; so [are] children of the youth.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 KJV - And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Titus 2:6-8 KJV - Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine [shewing] uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.