Dear Parents....
Dear Parents,
I see you. I see you trying to stay strong for your kids in the midst of all the crazy. I see you trying to make a safe place for your children at home and trying to be a safe place for them to come with all their emotions. I see you willing to help your children, no matter what it takes. If that means relearning middle school math or helping wash little hands a million times a day, so be it.
I see you trying to explain the somewhat unexplainable. I see you fighting for hope for them when they can’t fight for themselves. I see you fighting for peace in your homes, even when fights keep breaking out. I see you fighting for their future, when the future seems uncertain. I see how much you love your children and how you want everything to be not only ok, but good and wonderful for them. I see you.
But let me remind you…maybe weary, maybe tired, maybe weak parent: you are a first and foremost a child. You are a child of God. That love that we have for our children, the fighting and the striving, the deep desire to make a world better for them, to keep them safe, is not even close to the love that our God has for us. Let me give you a taste of God’s protective love over his children from Psalm 46:
“God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see what the Lord has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
Therefore, Moms and Dads, as we continue battling during these incredible times, remember who your Father is. Remember, as you fight for your children, Who is fighting for you. Remember, as you make a safe place for you children, where your safe place is. Remember, when you are being strong for your children, who your strength is. Remember, when you ease the fears of your children, who takes away your fears. Remember, as you love them fiercely, who loves you even more.
In all the battling and the remembering, our God calls us to something even more astounding. He calls us to “Be still and know that I am God.” As his children, we are called to still ourselves…body, mind, and soul and put our mind on our Father in Heaven. Parents, we get to be still! God tells us to! Not in a lazy or apathetic way, but in a powerful and intentional putting aside of all the things that get in the way and get to know Him.
So, I ask the ironic question in this season of forced communal stillness: Parents, are you being still? Are you, as a daughter and son of God, stilling your mind, your heart, and your body to really know God? Do you know Him? Do you know the love He has for you? A love so big and so real? If not, I beg you to do this. Take this time, this forced stilled time, to really truly and wholeheartedly be still. But don’t stop there! In the stillness, get to know your Heavenly Father. The Father, who paid an unfathomable price to love you.
Parent, you are a precious child of God. You have a Father who is fighting for you, so let that drive you to fight harder for you children. You have a Father who is your strength, so let that make you stronger for your children. You have a Father who is there to help in trouble, so let that move you to be a helper for your children. But most importantly Parent, you have a Father who calls you to be still, and is still with you. Let that presence move you to stillness for your children. Maybe Parents, the most important thing we can do in these times of uncertainty, is not to busy ourselves with solutions for our children but to simply be still with them. Maybe our stilled lives of knowing our Father’s love will still the hearts of our children and they too will get to know Him.
Annie Freeman is a leader with Karis Kids. She’s married to Seth and has two boys, Jackson and Luke.