“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” Isaiah 42:16
When my kids were growing up, I felt like a little lost puppy as I went from house to house, looking for answers on how to have a Christian home. I desperately wanted to figure out what I should be doing with my kids, so I observed the other moms that I knew. I looked over the books they had on their shelves, asked what activities they had their kids in, and took note of how they did things in their homes. I never felt like my family had it together as much as the other mothers’ families did. Deep down, I knew it was dangerous to compare, as it made me feel like a failure as a mom and that my kids always fell short, but I couldn’t stop noticing how confident these women were! I was so desperate to know what other people were doing in their homes because I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t want to mess up my kids or give them a childhood like the one I had, which was sad and disappointing. Because my childhood was so dysfunctional, I made lots of mistakes before I came to Jesus, and I worried that my kids would somehow do the same.
I remember one time when I felt so discouraged that I just couldn’t sleep. I went downstairs in the middle of the night and broke down and cried out my heart to God because I felt like I was just not doing this “mom thing” right. I was so scared that I was going to ruin my kids and cause them to turn away from God. This scary thought made me feel debilitated and hopeless.
As I sat that night crying, I saw my Bible sitting on the table next to my chair and decided to read a few Scriptures to encourage myself. I opened to the book of Isaiah and thumbed through chapter 42 and came to verse 16 (the key at the beginning of this article). I was amazed as I read the words; they immediately went deep into my heart. There was my encouragement!
Did I feel blind and was I venturing out into unknown territory? You betcha! But through these verses, God told me He saw me and He knew I felt lost and alone. And most of all, He told me again that He would help me become the mom He created me to be. Even though I had no Christian upbringing, and in spite of my many mistakes, He said He would help me, and He encouraged me to just keep trusting Him and letting Him lead me. Knowing God met me where I was caused me to feel at peace and enabled me to keep going. He knew what my kids needed, so I needed to filter all those ideas I was seeing through Him by praying and asking.
This is a picture of the practical way we walk with Jesus and how we raise our kids with Him, one day at a time. As you read the Bible get into the habit of asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you first crack open the pages. You will be amazed at how much you will learn if you involve God in your reading right here, right now. The Bible says that as believers, we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, and He teaches us all the time—all we have to do is ask. Yes, we will still make mistakes because we are human, but your life will be so much better because you walked each day with Jesus.
I remember going into my daughter's room night after night and kneeling beside her bed and crying my heart out to God because I didn’t know how to be a Christian mom; I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. You know what? God is so faithful! He answered me and simply said, “Spend time with me, Deb.” And so I did. I began arising 15-30 minutes earlier each day so I could read my Bible and pray, and plan out my day with my family.
If there was one thing I would love to share with you is that God is personal and loves you as you are. You don’t have to be perfect to be loved by our amazing God! Come as you are! His loving presence can be practically known and experienced. He is not a God who is far away, He is near and easily found. He longs for you to come to Him!
Randy and I have been married for 33 years and we have two grown children, Christie, and Jack, and one answer to prayer son-in-law named Alex. And now I get to be a Gigi to my sweet little grandbabies, Aspen and Skylar, and Piper. Yay!
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