“If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, and makes him a landlord to a ghost.” —Lloyd C. Douglas
What do these examples have in common?
- A conscientious parent sharing custody with an errant spouse
- An unwed mother giving her child for adoption
- A parent sending a child off to war
Candyce Carden, a military mom, woke one night fighting panic during her son’s deployment to Fallujah with the US Marines during the height of the Iraq War. She prayed Scripture to calm herself. After someone robbed her nearby nephew at gunpoint, she realized children don’t have to be at war seven thousand miles from home to meet danger.
“No matter how near our children are, disaster can strike. Paradoxically, this recognition helped me let go of the fear that had gripped me during my son’s deployment. Having my boy home wouldn’t ensure his safety. I had to let go and trust God.”[i]
The illusion of control feels good, but invariably situations arise to remind us how little we have. We weary ourselves trying to manage our children in ways we weren’t meant to. We exhaust ourselves trying to protect them from hurt when we could release them into God’s capable and loving hands.
Moses’ Mother: A Biblical Example of Trusting God with Your Child
Jochebed’s stomach must have knotted when the midwife placed Moses in her arms. He was beautiful. But should she open her heart to a child she would lose? After all, Pharaoh had commanded all of Egypt to kill every Hebrew baby boy.
Jochebed and Amram chose to accept their son as a gift from God and committed him into God’s care. God was bigger than their worst enemy and their greatest fear.
Jochebed trusted God one day at a time. She cared for her infant in secret. When he grew too big to hide at home, she made a little ark and placed him in the Nile. When Pharaoh’s daughter paid her to nurse him, she nourished his soul as well as his body. When the time arrived to release him, she relied on God for the strength to follow through.
How did she—how can we—fight the concerns that surely taunted her? Isaiah 8:12–14 (NLT) says,
“Don’t live in dread of what frightens them. Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble. He will keep you safe.”
Focus makes the difference. Jochebed understood her children belonged to God, not to her. She committed them and their outcomes to God, who could love and protect them better than she. If soldiers stormed her house, what could she do? Instead of focusing on what she couldn’t control, she poured herself into what she could—nurture her children in the Lord.
If a murderous king didn’t intimidate Jochebed, then hostile forces need not scare us. If Jochebed could trust God to be with her child in her enemy’s household, we can trust him to be with our loved ones in dangerous situations too.
Like Jochebed, when fear and dread threaten our peace, we can set our minds on the Lord. When awe of God replaces the fear of lesser things, he becomes our sanctuary—our safety, our peace. And from that place, we become all God intended. Jochebed’s faith produced Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. What dread do you need to release?
Strength Builder
What fear for your children do you need to place into God’s hands today? Instead of focusing on what you can’t do, in God’s strength take the step he’s laid before you.
Trusting God With Your Children When Fear Takes Over #FaithOverFear #TrustGod Share on XBlessings,
Excerpt from Little Strength, Big God (Leafwood Publishers)
[i] Candyce Carden, “Military Mon: Learning to Trust God,” Candyce Carden blog, accessed December 29, 2022, https://candycecarden.com/military-mom-learning-to-trust-god/.
Sometimes I link to these great sites:
#MondayLinkUp #InstaEncouragements, #Let’sHaveCoffee, #Grace&Truth, #SweetTea&Friends
” God was bigger than their worst enemy and their greatest fear.” Oh how true that still is and even more so today. I trust Him with my children and grandchildren.
My mother-in-law used to say, once a mother always a mother. So true. We have to trust God at all stages of our lives and theirs.
I thought that when my kids grew up I’d be done with worrying about their safety.
How silly of me! Now they do grown-up things, two of them have blue collar jobs, and all of them participate in outdoor activiites that involve sharp things and guns and lots of stamina.
We never graduate from needing to trust God!
I know, right? Always in the school of trusting.
Debbie, did you KNOW that I needed to read this about our adult son? It is very difficult to trust, but know it is the only way to peace! I am tempted to keep worrying!
Janet, it certainly can be. Faith is a muscle we must constantly use. Remembering that His ways are higher than ours and that He’s interceding for us helps me. May the Lord give you pease as you release your son and ideas of how He should work. He’s helping you!
You write: “We weary ourselves trying to manage our children in ways we weren’t meant to. We exhaust ourselves trying to protect. . .” Learning to let Go and let God is a hard but the best lesson. I’m still working on letting go better. I’ve learned fear is a call to prayer–and when I learned that, oh, how I learned better to let Go. He has such better plans and more creative, sure ways of working things out to their good than I do. What a good Father we have who just tells us to trust Him with out children–and is patient with us as we learn to give them to Him. Thank you for this reminder today to not get in God’s way.
I agree. Fear is a call to prayer. And trusting our Good Father brings peace. And sometimes that means praying without ceasing!
I love this, especially “God was bigger than their worst enemy and their greatest fear.” If we could only keep this in mind daily and in all situations!
Yes, when that invitation to worry becomes an invitation to remember how big our God is, everything changes.
Our mother’s heart learns to surrender our children to His faithful care as we surrender our hearts to Him. There’s no other way.
Lisa, you’re so right. There is no other way.
“We weary ourselves trying to manage our children in ways we weren’t meant to. We exhaust ourselves trying to protect them from hurt when we could release them into God’s capable and loving hands.” So very true and yet when we entrust them into the hands of God, they are in the safest place of all. May I release them quicker is my prayer. Blessings!
Yes. May I too!
I’ve had to come back to this again and again with my children. I’ve read missionaries who say that people worry about their children on primitive fields, but most of their injuries or illnesses have occurred in the US. Then you hear of freak accidents or young children battling leukemia–or you wait on pins and needles the first time your teens drive, then the first time they drive in the rain, then the first time they drive in the snow. And then they grow up and deal with job situations, major life decisions, etc. It never ends. But I can’t protect and guide them in all those situations–only God can. I often pray for them, but then I have trouble actually leaving them in God’s hands and not stewing. Jochebed is a wonderful example of trusting God with our children.
I hear you, Barbara. I’m speaking on peace next week and of course I’ve had the biggest onslaught of a variety of stressors! Trust is a muscle I must choose to exercise every day.
I have experienced that kind of fear over my children and it can be debilitating. But God is faithful when we trust Him with our most precious possessions. Thanks Debbie.
Those “what ifs” are killers. Thanks for reading.
Every time we embrace a promise in scripture, every time we see evidence of God’s intercession on our behalf, every time we affirm our trust, we acquire another arrow of conviction for our quivers of faith. Those arrows become weaponry to fight against the enemy’s attacks of fear and anxiety. I’ve found it valuable to record these “weapons” in a notebook or journal, ready to refer back to when the enemy returns. (He doesn’t give up easily!)
Excellent insight. I think recording them helps too.