Manna For Moms

Devotions for Moms Like You!

2010

When I Return

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

It had been a crazy morning. My husband was sleeping in, having been on call the night before and spent most of the night working. My middle daughter, Lindsey, was sick and needed to stay home from preschool. I was about to walk out the door to take Kenny and Jessica to preschool.

I knew that my husband probably needed a couple more hours of sleep. So I said to Ellie and Lindsey, “Girls, your daddy needs to sleep. I need to take the kids to school. What I need for both of you to do is to stay here and be quiet until I get back. Just watch TV, and don’t wake up Daddy unless there’s an emergency.”

There. That just about covered it, except for one thing. “Ellie,” I added, “if there are any arguments, or anything goes wrong between you two, just let it go. Let Lindsey win the argument if you have to, and I’ll settle things when I get back.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ellie said.

I knew I was asking Ellie to do a hard thing. As I closed the door behind us, I hoped that she would do what I’d asked.

And I realized that what I was asking her to do is the same thing God asks us to do.

We’re to try to get along with each other until His Son returns. If we can’t, then let things go. Know that He will return, and be confident that He will make all things right in the end.

It sounds simple. And it is. But it’s not easy.

When someone wrongs us, we don’t want to let it go. We want things to be right now. Why should we have to bear with injustice? Don’t we have the right to insist that other people treat us rightly?

Granted, there are some offenses that cannot and should not be overlooked. Certain wrongdoing or conflict should result in punishment and consequences, or at least a serious discussion.

But most of what we get angry or upset about isn’t worth the emotional energy we put into it. Most of it really doesn’t matter. Many things that we bring up to others in an attempt to get them to act “right” could probably equally well be left unsaid.

When something does matter, it is right to attempt to resolve the issue with the other person involved. Many times, this approach settles the issue. But sometimes, it doesn’t. What will we do then? Will we let ourselves become incensed and bitter? Will we keep the issue alive until the other party sees things our way?

Or will we let it go, and let Jesus settle things when He returns?

It’s hard to let people’s real or perceived sins against us go by the wayside without some sort of recompense to ourselves. It can feel like we’re being taken advantage of, or letting people “get away with” something.

But none of us truly gets away with anything. Someday, we’ll all answer for what we’ve done. That person who offended you will answer for it. She may not answer today, when you want her to. But she will answer—to God Himself.

So do your best to get along with others. When conflict can’t be successfully resolved, consider just letting it go. It’ll be taken care of at the right time, by God Himself.

Our Father will settle it when Jesus returns.

1 Peter 4:8—Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Romans 12:18—If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Even if I Didn’t Notice

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

The morning had been productive. I had gotten myself and the kids up and dressed, made sure everybody had breakfast, and gotten us out the door to the YMCA.

I’d also gotten in a good workout. Treadmill? Check. Lifting weights? Check. Drinking enough water? Check.

Now, we were home eating lunch. Ellie, six years old at the time, wanted to tell me about her morning. “At the Y,” she said, “there was this boy, and I kept having to tell the teacher that he was bothering me.”

From the chair next to her sister, three-year-old Lindsey piped up helpfully and earnestly, “Yeah, and I had to keep saving you.” She nodded for emphasis.

I was proud of Lindsey’s loving initiative toward her sister. Ellie didn’t seem as impressed as I was, but at least, she was polite. “Thank you for saving me,” Ellie said, “even if I didn’t notice.”

Ouch.

Ellie’s words made me cringe inside, not only because I was afraid Lindsey’s feelings would be hurt, but because I realized something.

You and I do the same thing to God on a regular basis.

We benefit from His help every single moment of our lives, yet most of the time, we’re oblivious to the fact that if it weren’t for Him, we wouldn’t even take our next breath. We don’t pay particular attention to God’s assistance unless it comes in the form of something miraculous or massive. When it’s “everyday” assistance, we pay it no more attention than we pay to the people who provide the electricity to our homes.

We simply expect His assistance to be there.

I wonder how God feels when we continually fail to acknowledge His interventions and provisions for us.

Even more than that, I wonder why He continues to provide for us when we take Him so much for granted.

On one hand, I know that He continues to sustain us because He loves us and because He has promised that He will. But from an earthly perspective, I simply can’t understand His ways.

If Ellie never noticed Lindsey’s assistance and rarely thanked her, or only mumbled obligatory, meaningless thank-you’s right before she took advantage of what Lindsey had done for her, I’m certain Lindsey would be tempted to stop helping. I know I would, and I’m an adult.

But despite the fact that we rarely give God the appreciation He deserves, He continues to lavish His love and care upon us.

That is truly amazing.

How God must long to see His children become aware of all He does for them and to hear them rise up in gratitude.

This week, let’s ask God to open the eyes of our hearts to see everything He does for us. As we move through our days, may He cause us to realize how much we need Him every moment.

When He has been gracious to do that, may we realize how incredibly much He has done for us already and is continuing to do every second. May we repent of every single time we failed to recognize His hand or took it for granted.

And just as our hearts are glad when our children express their thanks to us, may we bring joy the Father’s heart by pouring out our gratitude from hearts that overflow.

John 1:16—From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

Hebrews 13:15—Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.

Fleeing

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

My children and I love to go to the park. There is a nice park two blocks from our house, and lately, I’ve been trying to take them there as much as possible while the weather is still nice (before it gets too blistering hot). My three older children ride their bikes, and I pull Jessica in our Radio Flyer wagon. We park our vehicles in our usual spot, a grassy area near a tree and a bench, and the kids head off to play.

Last week, we had played for awhile and were ready to head home. Ellie was in the lead on the sidewalk leading to the street, with Jessica and me bringing up the rear, when a stray dog loped into the park.

Ellie saw him, and she immediately got off her bike, dropping it to the ground, and ran towards me, arms outstretched, calling my name. “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!”

Ellie is scared of dogs that move unpredictably or quickly, and once, a large pit bull (who was actually trying to be friendly) jumped up on her to lick her, and wound up scratching her cheek with his front paw. So when she saw this dog running towards her, she was understandably terrified, and fled in the opposite direction toward me as quickly as she could.

Everything turned out fine. The dog didn’t hurt anyone, and we made it safely past him. But I learned an important lesson that day.

My daughter knows how to flee: immediately, quickly, and completely. I need to learn from her. Perhaps you do, too.

Too often, when you and I see danger coming, we don’t flee. Sometimes, the threat is something that can cause us physical, emotional, or financial harm. We know our Father is right there with us, yet for some insane reason, we don’t flee to Him. We try to meet the monster ourselves.

It’s a foolish strategy. Why in the world would we try to deal with the hazard ourselves when our Father is right there? Yet too often, we do. Maybe we’ve come to believe the proverb “God only helps those who help themselves” (which is NOT in the Bible), so we muster up our own puny abilities and deal with the problem. Possibly, we overestimate our capacity for dealing with it. Or maybe we don’t realize that God cares about our problem and wants to help us.

Whatever the reason, we confront the menace ourselves, and we lose.

Other times, the danger isn’t direct and immediate. Temptation rarely looks as dangerous as it is. We see temptation coming, and we don’t flee, because we figure there’s no need to go running. After all, we can stand our ground and refuse, can’t we? Or maybe we simply don’t want to flee the temptation. Maybe we want to do the thing we shouldn’t.

If we saw a tornado heading straight for our home while we were playing outside with our children, what would we do? Would we say, “Kids, it’s getting a little windy out here, so we’re going to go inside in about ten minutes”?

Of course not. We’d gather up our children as fast as we could and run into the house, crowd into the safest closet we had, and pray.

Why would we do any less when temptation approaches?

Whenever we’re threatened, whether by temptation, by an obvious physical danger, or by any other thing that troubles us, we should flee to our Father. Let’s admit that we don’t have the strength to fight anything on our own. We’re desperately in need of God’s assistance every single time—whether it comes in the form of His giving us strength to do the right thing, or of His slaying the dragon on our behalf.

Let’s take a lesson from my daughter. This week, let’s learn to flee.

Genesis 39:12—But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

John 15:5—Apart from me you can do nothing.

Good Enough

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

As I write, I’m listening to children’s music about the color yellow blasting from the CD player in the kitchen. The kids have been in the kitchen and dining room for an hour now, alternately dancing to the music and playing with other toys.

Are they having a good enough time?

There’s a lot of laughter at our house. We make silly faces and tell silly jokes; we say silly things and laugh together. Sometimes, we chuckle in delight or laugh so hard we can’t stand up straight.

Yet at times, I wonder…on the whole, are they happy enough?

Every night, I tuck them in bed. Sometimes, I sing over them. Always, I pray for them. Then, I tell them, “You’re great kids, and I love you, and God loves you.”

But are they secure enough?

Most of us moms struggle, at least from time to time, with wondering if we’re doing enough. Are we providing our children a good enough childhood? Are we good enough moms?

The question is so important because the answer matters so greatly. We don’t want to fail our children. We want them to be deeply convinced that they’re loved and lovable, to have the right kind and amount of self-esteem, and most of all, to love God and be like His Son Jesus.

But how can we know if the job we’re doing as parents is sufficient to produce these results?

The issue becomes especially complicated for a mom who didn’t experience love, stability, and security in her own childhood. This mom knows what kinds of things not to do, but she doesn’t fully understand how a strong and loving bond is produced because she never saw it in action. When she makes a mistake, she’s never sure how bad of a mistake it is. So she lives with the constant, nagging fear that the things she’s doing might not be enough to give her children what she never had.

Precious mom, let me share with you what God, in His grace, taught me.

We don’t have to live in constant torment that we might not measure up. Our life as mothers is meant to be so much more than endlessly trying to measure up to society’s expectations, our best friend’s abilities, or even our own standards. The only One we have to please is God, and He does not make it difficult to know whether or not we are pleasing Him.

For one thing, He sets forth some clear, specific guidelines in His Word, the Bible, about how we should treat our children. We don’t need to wonder whether or not we should forgive our children or treat them kindly. That’s spelled out as plain as He could make it.

For another, when we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we have God Himself and His wisdom available right inside of us to tell us when we aren’t doing right. And we can be completely certain that He will tell us when we’re doing something wrong, and He’ll tell us specifically.

God’s ultimate desire for us is that we be conformed to the image of His Son—in other words, that we act like Jesus. So if anything we are doing, or failing to do, gets in the way of that, He’ll tell us what it is so that we can repent of it and uproot it from our lives. God won’t leave us with some vague, undefined sense of guilt. He won’t tell us we’re doing something wrong or insufficiently, then refuse to tell us what, exactly, He’s talking about.

What that means for us as mothers is that since God is the only person we ultimately have to please, if He’s not telling us we’re doing something wrong, then we are good enough.

The next time we wonder whether or not we’re being the kind of mom we should be, let’s simply ask Him. If we’re not, He’ll tell us. If we are, He’ll tell us that, too.

May we learn to rest in the fact that though we’re not perfect, we can be the kind of mom who pleases God. And ultimately, that kind of mom is good enough.

James 1:5—If any [mom] lacks wisdom, let [her] ask of God, who gives graciously to all without finding fault, and it will be given [her].

Almost

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

My precious daughter Lindsey turned four last week. One gift we got her for her birthday was a game she had really wanted. She was eager to play it, so we worked on setting up the game together.

Part of the setup involved making nets by threading the plastic net frame through the channel on the piece of netting. I sat on the floor, putting assembling one net. Lindsey chose a frame and a piece of netting and began trying to pass the curved frame through the netting. Finding it difficult to force the plastic through, Lindsey held the plastic steady and brought the netting down over it as far as she could, then reached up and threaded the next section on.

I watched her working diligently and bit back my offer of help. After awhile, though, the netting got all bunched up, and she couldn’t get it to go any further. “Will you please help me?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s almost done,” I said, making a minor adjustment and sliding the rest of the netting on. “You were so close. You almost had it.”

Lindsey had been so close to success. Had she persevered just a little bit longer, she would have made it. But she quit, believing that she couldn’t do it.

You and I do the same thing.

We fail to realize how close we are to success, and we give up.

We’ve disciplined the same child for the same infraction a hundred times, and it hasn’t worked yet, so we quit.

We’ve given the same explanation a thousand times as to why we don’t hit each other or why we go to church, and our kids don’t seem to get it in our time frame, so we figure they never will.

Maybe we’ve tried multiple times to lose the baby weight, or establish a quiet time, or learn to like cooking, and we’ve failed every time, so we don’t try any more.

I wonder how many of these times we’ve quit right before success—when we “almost had it”? When if we’d just kept on a little longer, we would have achieved our goal?

The problem is, we often don’t know when we’re almost there. We can’t see the finish line, so we don’t know how close we are. We struggle on, getting more and more exhausted and discouraged. Finally, we give up.

If only we could see the finish line and realize that we’re almost there.

Precious mom, we can’t see the end, but there is Someone Who can. We don’t know whether our efforts are ever going to succeed, but there is Someone Who does.

Our Heavenly Father knows when we’re this close to success, and when we need to stop, reassess, and go at things a different way. He knows when the battle we’re fighting is about to be won, and when it’s the wrong battle entirely.

Even better, He’ll tell us. He’s promised in His Word that when we really need answers, He’ll give them to us. They may not be the answers we expect, and they may not come in our timing, but they will come.

So the next time we’ve had it up to here, or we’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and tempted to quit, let’s stop and ask the Father. He’ll tell us what to do. And if the answer is to keep going, He’ll give us the ability to do it, and He’ll cheer us on while we do it.

Let’s not quit early. Let’s not miss out on the blessings God has for us if we’ll only keep going. Let’s let Him tell us when to continue, and when to reverse course.

We may not be able to see the right decision in our own wisdom, but He can in His.

James 1:5—If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives graciously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him.

1 Corinthians 15:58—Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

2 Timothy 4:7—I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Look at Me!

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

My youngest child, two-year-old Jessica, is enjoying her increasing physical abilities as she discovers what her body is designed to do. Whether it’s stretching as far as she possibly can or deliberately doing something silly, she loves to call my attention to her amazing feats.

Last week, she was in a playful mood. As I sat on the couch reading, I heard her say, “Look at me!”

She had struck a pose that required balancing skills, and she was waiting, with a big grin on her face, for me to applaud her achievement.

“Wow, look at you!” I said, and she grinned even wider, her eyes crinkling at the corners with delight.

One of the things I enjoy most about parenting is affirming my children. I love telling them how much I love them and what valuable creations of God they are. I rejoice in their achievements, and I make sure to show them that I do. I delight in seeing their little spirits grow strong and secure, and knowing that my words and my love had a part in that.

I bet you feel the same way about parenting your children. And I’m absolutely certain that God feels the same way about parenting us.

You and I enjoy pouring love and verbal affirmation into our children’s lives, even over the little things like striking a challenging pose. And if we, being evil, know how to do this for our children, and delight in it, how much more must God delight in doing the same for us?

Pause and let that sink in. Just as we are eager to encourage and affirm our children, God is eager to do the same for us, only vastly more so. (I’m not suggesting that God ever encourages us to keep sinning, or overlooks our sin. I’m talking here about times when we have achieved something good.) And if we can bring a smile to our children’s faces by affirming them, how much more could God bring a smile to our faces and delight to our souls if we could just hear Him cheering for us?

Too often, we get so focused on the fact that He is our Lord, which He most certainly is, that we forget He is also our Friend. That’s what Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection made possible: friendship with God. We can tell God, “Look at me!” and know that He is watching, ready to encourage us.

What does this look like in the normal, everyday life of an ordinary mom?

It looks like doing the laundry and saying, “Look at me, Daddy!” and hearing Him say, “Well done. I’m proud of you.”

It looks like actually getting your family to church on time, saying, “Look at me, Daddy!” and knowing that He is smiling and saying, “Good for you!”

Let’s look for His smile this week (and remember, His smile doesn’t depend on performing perfectly, because nobody can do that, anyway). Let’s listen for His words of encouragement. Let’s invite Him into our life for all the small things, too, that happen to us every day, for Him to share them with us.

“Look at me, Daddy!” we’ll say.

And we’ll know that He looks, and loves, and smiles.

Matthew 7:11 – If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Dashed Hopes

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

Imagine that you have a daughter who, from a very early age, shows talent in gymnastics. You enroll her in classes when she turns three, and the coach is amazed at her performance. By the time she’s six, she’s practicing at the gym fourteen hours a week. At twelve, she’s competing at the junior national level.

At fifteen, your daughter makes the Olympic team. A few months later, you travel with her to the Olympics. You’re there for every moment of competition as she earns a spot in the top tier of gymnasts who will go on to compete for medals.

Then, it happens. She hits the springboard, mounts the balance beam…wobbles…and falls. You hear the gasps and murmurs of disappointment from the people sitting around you.

She finishes with a dismal score on beam, and her scores on the other three events aren’t much better. Newscasters and media articles rip her to shreds for not living up to expectations. It’s obvious that they’re not only disappointed in her performance, but angry at her. They pour out their anger upon her, and your mother heart hurts for her.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, would have understood how you feel. She, too, watched her precious firstborn grow up to become the darling of multitudes. Certainly, there were a few people who hated Him, and she herself didn’t always understand what He was doing. But everyone else loved Him and sang His praises.

In fact, as He entered the city of Jerusalem a week before Passover, they were literally singing. Not only that, they were also throwing their garments on the road in front of Him and waving palm branches, shouting His praises.

Yet a week later, they had turned on Him, demanding His blood.

Why?

Most of the Pharisees and other religious leaders never liked Him, so it’s no surprise that they wanted Him dead. But why would a crowd who loved Him a week ago turn on Him and shout, “Crucify! Crucify!”?

One reason was because they were angry. By doing all the miracles He had done, and by putting the oppressive religious leaders to shame with His perfect answers, Jesus had gotten the crowd’s hopes up. Surely this was the Messiah. Who could do more amazing things than Jesus had done? He must be the one!

But then, the people saw Him arrested and beaten, and not fighting back. Wait a minute; what kind of Messiah was this? He must be a false prophet after all. Bitterly disappointed, the crowd became angry and vengeful.

We know what happened next. The sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, allowed humanity to put Him to death as part of God’s perfect plan for the redemption of our souls. He took the punishment we deserved because of our sins but never could have borne, so that we wouldn’t have to. Why? To bring glory to God the Father by reconciling us to Him, if we will repent of our sins, accept His sacrifice on our behalf, and acknowledge His lordship.

But that’s not what the people were hoping for. They wanted liberation from Rome, not liberation from sin. And Jesus hadn’t met their expectations.

Precious mom, what do you and I do when our children don’t live up to what we expect of them?

Far too often, we sin. We get angry. We yell, or use sarcasm, or worse. We don’t crucify their bodies, but we wound their little spirits.

We get disappointed, and we take it out on them.

Clearly, there are times we have to discipline our children. But do we do it in a redemptive way? Or do we punish them, not for their sin, but for disappointing us?

Other times, we punish them when they haven’t even sinned. Whether Johnny doesn’t have an athletic bone in his body, or Suzie doesn’t want to dress “frilly” like other little girls, we show our disappointment in our words (or lack of words), our tone of voice, or our body language.

I wish I could say that I always discipline rightly, but I can’t. Perhaps you can’t either. Our hearts should grieve over our sin.

Oh, God, help us. Forgive us for wounding our children’s precious souls. Grant us wisdom, that we may know when and how to discipline, and self-control, that we might always discipline for our children’s benefit and with love. Help us rise and begin again to shepherd Your precious sheep with the same lovingkindness with which You shepherd us. May our homes be a place where it’s safe to be imperfect, and where unconditional love is shown all the time.

In Jesus’ name we pray.

Amen.

James 1:5— If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

1 Corinthians 16:14—Do everything in love.

So Bad

Megan Breedlove 2Comments

Discipline is hard. Wouldn’t you agree?

It may even be the hardest part of rearing children. There are the times when you wonder if what your child did is really an offense, and if it even merits correction. There are other times when the action definitely deserves discipline, but it’s hard to figure out exactly what the consequences should be. Then, there are the occasions when you know exactly what your child deserves, but it breaks your heart to have to enforce it.

Discipline is challenging for other reasons, too. We all know we’re supposed to be consistent, but sometimes it’s really hard to get up off the couch and apply consistency when you’re exhausted from lack of sleep the night before. Or when you’ve tried to be consistent with your discipline, and it looks like you’re not making any progress, and then your child does the same thing you’ve told him not to do a thousand times already—do you apply the same consequence for the thousand-and-first time, hoping it works this time, or do you try something else?

When your child’s behavior is so bad, what do you do?

Two years ago, a friend of mine was struggling with a behavior of her daughter’s that was particularly difficult. My friend had tried everything she could think of. She was praying, she was disciplining consistently, she was seeking advice from others—and still, her daughter kept behaving the same way. My friend was exhausted and discouraged.

There may be times when a situation is so serious that more extreme measures have to be taken to protect the welfare of the family. But this was not one of those times. This was the kind of situation we’ve all found ourselves in, where we’re just plain exhausted. Where we begin to consider whether the battle is really worth it. Where we feel like giving up the fight.

I’m so glad God never gives up the fight where one of His children is concerned.

We’ve all sinned against Him far more often and more seriously than our children have sinned against us, yet God never washes His hands of us.

Yes, He may allow us to experience the consequences of our actions—which may include distance from Him—in order to get our attention and bring us to our senses. But He never walks away from us. He never decides that we’re so much trouble He’s not willing to deal with our problems anymore.

Praise Him that this is the truth! Because of His infinite love, mercy, and faithfulness, He sticks with us until the end, and not from a far distance, either, but still desiring to be intimately involved.

He still keeps trying, even when we continue to frustrate His efforts.

The next time we find ourselves running short on patience with our children, let’s take just a minute to remember that our children aren’t the only ones who frustrate their parents. We’ve frustrated our Parent, too.

Let’s confess our sins to God, and let’s cooperate with His parenting instead of resisting Him.

Then, let’s ask Him to help us show our children the same patience He has shown to us: a loving, redemptive patience that leads us into closer relationship with Him.

In our so doing, may He be glorified.

Joshua 1:5—As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

John 13:35—By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Helping Us

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

It’s hard to believe Ellie has been potty-trained for four years now. It seems like just yesterday that I would get so excited when she got even a little trickle into the potty. “Good job!” I’d say, trying to strike the right balance between affirmation and not calling too much attention to the whole process.

My husband and I joked that Ellie should write a coffee table book, one of those oversized ones with pictures, called Potties of America, because she liked to check out the potty everywhere we went. It didn’t matter if she’d just successfully used the potty at Target; when we walked into Wal-Mart, she suddenly had to go again.

Potty training was going well. But every now and then, Ellie still needed a little help with clothes that were difficult to unfasten. I remember one time when my husband told Ellie to go potty, since we were about to leave the house. “But Daddy, I can’t get the button,” Ellie said.

So Daddy helped her manage the difficult fastening.

Maybe this scene seems insignificant, considering that similar ones happen in households across the world every day. But it illustrates a profound spiritual truth.

Just as Ellie’s daddy responded when she needed help in completing what he asked her to do, so our heavenly Father responds when we need His help in carrying out the services He asks of us.

We often hear the statement, “God won’t give you anything you can’t handle.”

I would amend that to say, “God won’t give you anything you can’t handle with His help.”

He most certainly does assign us tasks that are beyond—sometimes far beyond—our ability to complete on our own. But He always offers the help we need to be able to achieve what He’s required of us.

God will never charge us with accomplishing something with which He will not also help us. Can you imagine an earthly parent saying to her child, “It’s time for you to learn how to drive. Here are the keys. Good luck, because I won’t be with you. I hope you figure it out”?

Of course not. And if we, being evil, know how to come to our children’s aid, and are willing to do so, how much more does our heavenly Father desire to help us do what He asks of us?

Sometimes, as moms, as Christians, or as both, we get the idea that we shouldn’t need help, because we should be able to do everything by ourselves. Then, when we run into trouble, we spend far too much time trying on our own to force things to work out, when clearly the situation is beyond our capabilities.

The next time we encounter difficulties—and there will come a next time—let’s be quick to lay down our pride and our mistaken ideas that we have the ability to be independent. Let’s recognize and admit it when we need help.

For one thing, we were made to need our Creator, and it’s a mistake ever to think we can be independent. For another, when we show a watching world that we need Him, and that He is sufficient to make us fully capable, we bring Him glory.

And bringing Him glory is a far greater privilege than being able to say, “I did it myself.”

Matthew 7:11—If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

2 Samuel 22:30—With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.

Independence

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

At two years old, my youngest child, Jessica, has entered her independent stage. I used to be able to help her do things like get into the van. Not anymore. “No! Do it myself!” she wails if I try to assist her.

There are many things Jessica wants to do by herself, but she’s not always able to do what she desires. It gets frustrating for me, having to watch her attempt something for herself that I could do for her ten times faster, and not be “allowed” to help her.

Sometimes, when Jessica realizes she can’t do something, she’ll ask for help. Other times, she won’t. She’ll just keep trying unsuccessfully, usually fussing about it.

Jessica’s not alone in wanting to be independent when she really needs help. You and I are the same way. Take mothering, for example. Often, we’re slow to ask for help because we think that we should be able to do it all—that if we would just try harder or better, we could do everything.

It’s bad enough when we try to mother without being willing to ask for or accept assistance from other mothers. It’s worse when we try to navigate life without help from God.

How many times have we called our friends or family first when we’re faced with a problem, instead of talking to God? How often have we found ourselves in the middle of a situation before we remembered to pray?

If you’re like me, the answer is “far too many times”.

We want to do things on our own because we can thus maintain the illusion of control, or because we want to believe that we’re ultra-capable and thereby give our self-esteem a boost.

But do you know what? We weren’t made to be independent of God.

Even when we think we’re independent, we’re not. When we think we’re accomplishing life without God’s help, we’re not. After all, who gave us our bodies that we use to accomplish things? Who gave us our mind, our personality, our skills?

Anything we accomplish is done with God’s help, even if we don’t specifically ask for it.

We may not know this, but God does. He’s well aware of our limitations because He created us. How ridiculous must it look to Him when He sees us thinking we’ve got it all together and don’t need His help?

Sometimes, as I do with Jessica, God stands back and watches, letting us come to the realization that we can’t do something on our own. I’ll bet it frustrates Him. But He knows we have to come face to face with our insufficiency so that we can realize we are merely creatures, and we need Him.

When God shows us we need His help, what do we do? Do we keep trying to do the task on our own, complaining, stressing about it and refusing to ask for help? Or do we humble ourselves and admit our need?

What are you and I facing right now in life wherein we need God’s help? (If our answer is “nothing”, we’re badly mistaken.) Have we admitted that we need help, or are we still struggling along on our own, struggling, complaining, and stressing?

May we be quick to acknowledge our limitations, let God take our burdens, and accept the help He offers.

1 Corinthians 4:7—What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

2 Chronicles 14:11— Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you.”

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