Learning to Trust God with my Child

Dear Moms,

What stage and circumstance are you in with your child?

Are you holding your newborn, packing lunches for your elementary student, navigating the teenage years, or have you launched them into the big world of adulthood? 

Are they trusting in God? Or are they far away from Him?

I’ve been a mom for 22 years and I can tell you that one day I'm patting myself on the back as the best mom ever, and the next day I’m curling up sobbing, quite certain that I'm failing. And then there are those days that I experience both of those emotions multiple times in a day!

When it comes to my children, I’m soft as a lamb snuggling with them and then I can be roaring lion losing my temper with them.

I’ve taken Psalm 139, tailored it to my kids, and used it to bathe my children in prayer. As I pray it for them, I find the posture of my heart shifts to trusting God with my most precious treasure- my child! I recognize that God is in control, in all circumstances, and comforts this mom's heart!

O LORD, you have searched my child and know my child!
You know when my child sits down and when my child rises up; 
you discern my child's thoughts from afar.
You search out my my child's path and my child's lying down
and are acquainted with all my child's ways.
Even before a word is on my child's tongue, behold, O LORD, you already know it. 
You surround my child, enclosing my child in, behind and before,and lay your hand is upon my child.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high; I do not understand it. 

Where can my child go from your Spirit?
Or where can my child run from your presence?
If my child ascends to heaven, (everything is great) you are there!
If my child make his/her bed in Sheol, (everything seems like hell) you are there!
If my child takes the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, (feeling lost or in despair)
even there Your hand shall lead my child,
and Your right hand shall hold my child.
If my child says, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, I'm afraid,
and the light about me seems like night,”
even the darkness is not dark to You, O God;
the darkness to You is bright as the day. 
For you formed my child's inward parts;
you knit my child together in the womb.
I praise you, for my child is fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
Your eyes saw my child's unformed substance;
in Your book were written every one of the days that you formed for my child 
when as yet there was none of them. 
How precious are your thoughts toward my child, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I could count them, they are more than the sand.
When My child awakes you are still there.
O God Search know my child's heart!
Try and know my child's thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in my child,
and lead my child in the way everlasting!  Psalm 139

 Hang in there moms!  God’s got this!

About Lori

Lori is a Global Mission Catalyst at IMB, mobilizing churches and leading women to participate in God’s global mission.  She, her husband, and their 3 kids lived in Africa as missionaries before returning to plant Grace Point Church in Bentonville, AR where Mike is Sr. Pastor. She’s passionate about discipling people to see how their everyday life collides with God’s mission of making His glory known to all nations. She blogs at lorimcdaniel.org


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