Parenting With Faith
I’ve unintentionally partnered with the enemy’s schemes in my children’s lives.
You see, I’ve been a fearful parent.
Many of you may know my story of experiencing trauma and abuse growing up. My dream was to have a life where my children lived in safety, stability, and security and not experiencing what I went through.
But as my children have grown, I find myself using my past trauma as a reference point for whether or not I’m doing a good job as a parent.
Does my daughter know that I love her? She doesn’t seem very happy. Oh no, have I done something?
My three year old son is having meltdowns. Have I connected enough with him? He’s seeking negative attention all because I’m not giving him enough positive attention?
Will my two year old feel rejected now that I have a newborn at home?
Am I doing enough?
Am I enough?
All of the fear and worry. Some thoughts very normal and typical of any parent.
One early morning as I was feeding my youngest son, I began to dwell on my worries regarding my children. The fear, the dread of my future relationship with my children, and the worry became heavy. I realized that every time I thought about my children, I felt a huge weight of lack and failure.
I felt like I wasn’t doing enough and they were going to end up just like me.
Those thoughts aren’t exactly edifying (strengthening, comforting, or encouraging). Instead, they were accusatory and shame-filled.
These thoughts were not from the Holy Spirit.
That morning, I felt the Holy Spirit remind me to shift my focus, my faith, from the lack of my imperfections as a parent to the TRUTH that I have the Spirit of God and His Word guiding me in wisdom as a parent and his grace for every unintentional mistake in my parenting.
We can’t live in fear and faith at the same time about anything in our life- especially in the health and wellness of our children.
Before, my worry fueled my faith in the enemy regarding my children. Now I can choose to rely on the Holy Spirit in my parenting journey and the biblical promises guaranteed to me as a believer in the Word of God over my children.
How?
Every time the enemy being fear or thoughts of lack of not doing enough, I shift my focus to -“Lord, what do you say about my children? What can I partner in faith and declare about their lives?“ if I don’t know, I Google verses about it.
Every time I feel discouraged in my parenting, I ask the Lord to show me how he sees my children and how he sees me as a parent. I ask him for wisdom because he promises in his word to give it to us when we ask (James 1:5).
Every time I do make a mistake, I apologize and repent to the Lord, to my spouse, and to my children and receive The Lords grace and forgiveness. I then choose to let go of the guilt and shame instead of beating myself with the memories in the future. If the memories do come up, I shift my thoughts to different memories or tell the thoughts to leave in Jesus name and speak out loud Gods truth about me and my family.
Ask the Lord for words specifically about your children and their future. The Lord has shown me things about my children’s future and their identity that I can recall when I feel discouraged by what I may see in the natural. We can prophesy into their future!
As godly parents, we can trust that our family and our children have a future full of hope and prosperity. Why? Because the Bible promises of we trust in the Lord, he will take care of us!
Your Jesus is enough in you and we have the most perfect father in heaven and his Spirit to guide us as we love these little people.
I pray today you will shift from parenting out of fear to partnering with the Lord in faith for your children!
Love,
Malana
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