Surprised by prayer
The last few weeks have given me the rare privilege of being embedded with my oldest daughter, Morgan, and her family. It has been a privilege of tremendous value in ways I’m still trying to sift and sort through. The reason for my presence was a crisis. Her husband of 18 years was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Though benign and operable, the diagnosis itself was certainly cause for concern. I was invited to be present to help run her household of four children and be a safe place for her to land after long and stressful days at the hospital.
Watching your grown children become the people you prayed for them to be is an awe-inspiring, humbling experience.
It’s as if the things I prayed for surprised me even though I believed enough to ask and dared to risk the price of hope! Time has a way of giving you some beautiful gifts.
“Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9, KJV)
Be patient, mamas, when you feel as if you will never see the fruit of your labor. Be faithful when it seems as if your tears are meaningless. Be prayerful when you feel as if you are being ignored. God is not done. It takes time to see the fruit of your faith. Raising children and building a household of faith is not for the faint hearted. There are no formulas or guarantees to secure our desired outcome.
The weight you carry and responsibility entrusted to you is exhausting and overwhelming at times. You will be tempted to fall prey to discouragement and disillusionment in certain seasons. There is no question you are being assaulted by a world that is falling into deep darkness and threatening to take your children with it. You are uncertain and unappreciated on most days. But I want to encourage you to remember whose garden you are cultivating and who takes full responsibility for the growth, health, and yield from the garden. You are a co-laborer with the creator of your family.
Jesus offers supernatural strength through His Holy Spirit, the enduring and unchanging word of God to guide and lead you, power in every prayer uttered in faith, and encouragement through other believers to work alongside you.
Keep sowing, tending, weeding, and cultivating your children’s walk with Jesus.
You will never regret the time you chose to tend and til the soil of their heart.
Watching my daughter stand on the solid Rock, listen to His voice, step into crisis with courage and Christ confidence, hold up life, light, and enduring love to all fills me with deep gratitude for the faithfulness of God. “He watches over His word to perform it.” I am witnessing the baton of faith being transferred to my children’s children. God started the good work, and He always completes what he starts.
The prognosis for my son-in-law’s healing is all positive, but the process will be tedious and trying. Expectations for this season have been surrendered to the wisdom and perfect timing of God. Trusting there is a purpose in this and it will be for the good and growth of the whole family and the glory of God, is the perspective they are choosing to see. I have no idea what the Lord is accomplishing in and through them, but I have no doubt He is good, His ways are perfect, and he can be trusted with all things. Yes, even the most tender and precious things to your heart!
Carry on, mama! If you are tempted to grow weary, remember due season will yield more than you can think or imagine!
