"You should stop hoping and just accept this is who your child is now."
How it sounds in your head: It's been five years. Maybe this isn't a 'season' - maybe this is just who she is now. People keep asking about her and you're tired of saying 'we're still praying.' At some point, doesn't hope become denial? Maybe accepting her choices is healthier than this constant heartbreak.
"This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."
-- Lamentations 3:21-23Source: World's wisdom that calls hope naivety and labels persistent faith as unhealthy attachment, directly opposing God's nature that never gives up.
The exhaustion of hoping and being disappointed is real. Acceptance feels like it would bring peace, and everyone seems to think you should 'move on' by now.
Mephibosheth lived in Lo Debar (place of no pasture) for years, crippled and forgotten, assuming he'd die there - then David suddenly restored him to the king's table permanently. One day changed decades of exile because of a covenant the son didn't even know existed.
I REFUSE the lie that hope has an expiration date. IT IS WRITTEN that His mercies are new EVERY MORNING - if they're new today, my hope is renewed today. Five years is NOTHING to a God who waited 400 years to deliver Israel from Egypt and called it 'the appointed time.' IT IS WRITTEN in Jeremiah 29:11 that His plans for my child are for hope and a future, not harm - those plans don't expire based on my exhaustion. I declare TODAY is the day of salvation, this is the acceptable time, and I will hope against hope like Abraham because my God is faithful.
The Father hasn't moved on or accepted 'this is just who she is now' - He's more stubborn about her destiny than you are, more relentless in pursuit, more convinced of who she REALLY is. He's whispering her true identity over her every single morning with fresh mercies you can't see yet.