Inspirational stories of faith are like a double espresso during an afternoon energy lapse, or like the warmth of the sun finally breaking through after days and days of gloom. Hearing that someone else, like Corrie ten Boom or Susanna Wesley or one of my daughters, continued to choose walking with Jesus when she could have just as easily said, “I’m done with You,” strengthens my faith and gives me hope to keep believing as I walk my own rocky pathway.
I’m thinking today of my youngest daughter who has had more opportunities to run from Jesus than I did when I was her age. Laura, who is truly lovely inside and out, just turned 30. Though surrounded by five siblings who collectively are parents to 21, and by us, her parents who lead a marriage ministry, she remains optimistic and faith-filled about her future and circumstances. She has had more heartache and pain in her twenties than I could have imagined. And I’m glad I didn’t know it was coming or I would have never let her go. Yet through it all she has not only remained steadfast she has grown deeply into Christ with a resultant wisdom that I know now grows only in the fields of suffering.
Moms dream of and pray for good for our children. We long for stability, security, and safety to surround their lives. We crave it for them but we also crave it for us; for when our children suffer and hurt so do we. One of my favorite quotes says, “Children are little pieces of a mother’s heart walking around outside her body.”* My heart hurts as badly now over my daughter’s heartache as it did when she fell on the playground at school. Probably more so because I can’t kiss it and make it better any more. And that is where trusting is hard.
This prayer reminds me of a Love that is always good; in daytime and night, in hard times and in good, pursuing me and my children from before the foundation of the world. It reminds me that He is more than able to meet the needs of my children and me because He is unshakable and unchanging. Forever!
What a wonder! What a Savior! Join me in glad worship today!
*Jean Fleming, A Mother’s Heart.
Dear Barbara….I have enjoyed your posts, your words of wisdom and both you and your husband’s ministry. When I was single, I would read your wise counsel on marriage and hold on with faith that one day my wedding day would come. Please be encouraged, and encourage your daughter that God IS faithful! I waited for God’s perfect timing, and although I endured many broken hearts-and my mom went to be with the Lord before my wedding day, at the age of 36 God fulfilled His promise and answered my heart’s cry. God’s timing is perfect, and had I met my husband in my younger years I would have dismissed him and never seen the beauty of God’s plan in bringing him to me. It was heartbreaking at first to know that my mom hasn’t physically met him, but I know that “All things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8: 28-my mom used to tell me that ALL of the time when I would worry about ever getting married. God IS faithful!