Encouragement for Wives with Children
“All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” Isaiah 54:13. I pray this verse over our five daughters on a regular basis but recently God has given me a greater revelation as to its true meaning. While we are definitely called to “train up our children in the way they should go so that when they are old they won’t depart from it,” Prov 22:6 (my paraphrase) we also need to release our children to God to be taught by Him. Only God knows the purposes and plans He has for each of our children (Psalm 139: 13-16, Jeremiah 29:11) and thus the experiences that they need to go through for His purposes to come to pass. As military families our heartache over moving our children from school to school can be huge. Our heartache over seeing them coping with an absent father or mother due to deployment/exercises/courses etc. can be enormous.
I have shed many tears for our children as Mick has departed for long periods of time on deployment and as we have moved from location to location. Some locations we would have loved to stay in forever…wonderful friends, wonderful schools etc. There are other locations where I have questioned God’s sanity in sending us there! The schools and local environment would definitely not have been of my choosing. I have struggled with the knowledge that “if only” we lived a more stable life then my children would also live the life that I would much rather they have. It must frustrate God no end that I happily ask Him to teach our children but then fight Him every step of the way as He moves us from place to place! As our children have grown (and we have a long way to go yet) God has begun to show me that He has taught them and that all the experiences they’ve had have been for His purposes and are a part of what He has planned for them. The bad experiences have been just as valuable as the good ones. It has actually been in the “dark” times, in the places which were the most difficult, that our children have made decisions to follow Jesus. I can see that He has used them to be “lights in the darkness” but He has always also provided Christian fellowship for them and He has never left them. God has a different plan for each one of our children. The way that He teaches each one will be unique. Some children won’t have the upheavals that others will but if we keep trusting God and entrusting our children to Him then we know that He will work all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
May you and your children know the love and peace of God (knowing that He has good plans for you) as you walk through deployments and moves.
PS…it’s still okay to cry…