Chapter 2 really challenged me this week! “Releasing My Child Into God’s Hands” has been a continual goal through the years, but I’m always amazed at my human nature trying to take over. I find myself daily having to give my children back into His hands! We dedicated them to Him as infants and pledged our commitment as parents to seek His will and guidance for raising and guiding them to adulthood.
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will our Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:11
This is a constant challenge for me through many areas in life. I often catch myself feeling overwhelmed and alone and forgetting that all I need to do is lay these needs before Him and He’ll take care of them all in His perfect way in His perfect time! Why do I struggle to remember this?
Do you struggle with this too? Are you an overprotective parent and find yourself worrying constantly (or too often) about your child’s safety and well-being?
Chapter 3 fell right into line with the next step to the issues I mentioned before. Now that I’ve released my children (daily if necessary) back into God’s hands let’s get right to the heart of most parent’s fears . . . “Securing Protection from Harm”. In many ways this is all about wisdom. Giving my fears in this area to Him and asking for his Wisdom. You know that ominous “red flag” when things aren’t quite what they should be!
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me, says the Lord.” Isaiah 54:17
Isn’t it wonderful that we have such promises as this and know that since He created them and knew them (and their future) before they were born who better to leave our children in the hands of than their CREATOR?
Recently we have encountered a few serious potentially dangerous situations where we have to lean on God and His promises. I was poignantly reminded of the evil in our world when I received an email from the soccer league warning all parent’s of a suspicious individual that has been appearing at various soccer events and practices around our town. We live in a town that is literally full of sporting events. As you drive through our town you will see that every school, park and any other facility that can handle sports is filled to the brim with several teams of kiddos practicing many different sports. And since we have three in sports this is particularly disturbing as we occasionally have to drop one off in order to take the next one where they need to be.
I know that they have great coaches and our community of team moms is ever watchful and that alone is comforting, but in the midst of all that I realize that as amazing as it may seem God is even more capable of protecting them from any harm. I have to give them to Him!
This week we are reading Chapters 4 through 6.