Psalm 127:3 Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.

God loves our children so much. There is scripture scattered throughout the Bible telling of God’s love for children. He chose each of us to parent the specific children that he placed in our lives! GOD chose you, HE blessed you, and HE deemed you capable of parenting them. Frankly, I’m surprised he trusts US with HIS children, but he does. Ultimately though, HE created them for HIS glory. Do you believe he is CAPABLE of providing and protecting them? God doesn’t parent how we would, but he does want what is best for ALL of his children. When everything goes all wrong, do you believe that God is holding them in the palm of his mighty hand? Do you rest easy in that or do you run around trying to control your children’s circumstances that you have absolutely no control over? We can trust God to take care of our children, whether they are 3 or 33.

When my daughter was born I didn’t have ANY prior experience with babies, but I knew I was put on this planet to care for her. I was the stereotypical first time mom; I was definitely overprotective. I only left her with family and only if I was required to for work. I tried not to worry when I wasn’t with her, but it was still a challenge. We attended a very large church at this time and the thought of putting my daughter in the church nursery with a stranger was not something I could fathom. The idea of that was absolutely terrifying to me. As the months went by there was no chance that we were going to be able to keep attending church if she was with us in service. (I know many people make choices to have their toddlers in service, but just hang with me for a second. There is no judgement here.) My daughter was a very busy baby and walking at ten months. When she was nine months old, I had let my fear of the church nursery overwhelm me. I had decided that I wasn’t going to go to church and put her in a church classroom until she was old enough to communicate any problems with me. I didn’t feel good about this choice, but in my mind, it seemed like the only viable option. I was attending a Bible study at the time where we were studying Exodus. I remember reading scripture about how Moses’ mom, Jochebed, chose to put Moses in a basket and release him down the river in hopes that God would protect him from Pharoah. I was truly horrified. How could a mother possibly ever take such action? She knew that Moses belonged to God though and that she would not be able to protect him herself. The only way to truly save Moses’ life was to release him and trust that God would save him.

My mother’s heart was just destroyed by even the suggestion of this. I could NEVER have done that; it didn’t matter whose life was at stake. In that moment, I realized I couldn’t even bring myself to put my child in the church nursery! How much was I trusting God with my own daughter? Bottom line, I wasn’t AT ALL! I had deemed that God wasn’t capable and that only I was capable. I really didn’t like this realization. I didn’t like how it felt and I REALLY didn’t like what it meant I was going to have to do. That first day leaving her in the church nursery was painful, but purposeful. Guess what? She survived! Yes, she survived the church nursery! I can look back and laugh about it now, but it was hard at the time.

I have had to trust God with my children through so many more circumstances since then. He has always been faithful and I am so grateful for that. I am so glad that I don’t get left with my own reasoning. I would make such a colossal mess of things. I am glad that my God is bigger and wiser than I am. We can all trust that God is watching over our children. I don’t care what age and I don’t care what trial. It doesn’t matter if they are required to be with someone you don’t trust, teenagers fighting addiction, or toddlers struggling with separation anxiety. God is faithful. As parents we can trust our loving father to take care of our children and we should be SO GRATEFUL. We can release control and trust God with our beautiful children because he loves them so very much.

Exodus 1:22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Exodus 2:1-6 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.