An Ever Present Help
by Amanda Christopher
I have four kids, aged 12, 10, 7, and 5. They are among my greatest joys and delight, but, as I’m sure you know or can imagine, four kids can be a lot at times!
We just wrapped up another school year, and it was truly just in time. School mornings were getting HARD. The kids were tired, the parents were tired, and there were many days that I did not respond well to my kids’ morning struggles. On many occasions I thought to myself, “We do this EVERY SCHOOL DAY. Why do my kids act like they don’t know how to get ready and get out the door for school?”
One day on the drive to school, I was having that thought, and I clearly felt Holy Spirit saying to me, “Your kids have these struggles every school day. Why do you expect them to change what they are doing? You need to change what you are doing.”
Um, ouch?
Really, it was very convicting. I was waking up every day, knowing full well how the morning would likely go, and taking no steps to prepare myself to respond with patience and grace to the complaints, the slowness, the attitude struggles. I was entirely passive in my approach to these school mornings and largely responding in my flesh.
I am not a morning person, so getting up early to read my Bible and pray has not been a thing. But I realized that I didn’t need an intense early morning quiet time to prepare my heart and mind to handle mornings differently. I just needed a few minutes to pray and ask God to give me what I needed for the task of getting my kids off to school.
Those prayers were nothing elaborate. Often they have been something as simple as, “Holy Spirit, give me what I need to be gentle and kind with my kids this morning.” Sometimes I’d be more specific. Each time, I found that the act of bringing that specific hour of the day to the Lord changed things. It didn’t change my kids. They could still be cranky and forgetful. (You mean I have to pack my own lunchbox?!) But it changed me and the position of my heart.
I find it beautiful that we have a God who sees us in these mundane moments and is ready and delighted to meet our needs in them. He really does care about our everyday holiness. The way I respond to my kids can be holy or not. When I am gentle and compassionate with them, even when it’s difficult, I am able to demonstrate the way that Jesus is gentle and compassionate with us. How He is patient with me even when I’m dramatic and uncooperative. How He lovingly reminds me when I am forgetful. How he isn’t frustrated or short-tempered. He is present with us, helping us.
I find myself doing this in more and more areas of my life- whispering a prayer asking for help, bringing my need to Him. It has been a good, regular reminder that I am weak, but He is not.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
“As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!”(Psalm 40:17)
He is strong in our weakness, and He wants us to call out to Him. If you are in Christ, do not forget the gift of his ever-present help.