Worry Blinder

Have you noticed that horses pulling wagons or carriages often wear blinders as part of their harness? Blinders keep them looking forward away from all the distractions, from possibly being "spooked" or startled, from becoming anxious, worried and uncontrollable.

 

We moms can become fretful, anxious, and worried. And worry can easily cause us to become uncontrollable. Now that's a word with some serious synonyms: unmanageable, out of control, irrepressible, uncontainable, unruly, disorderly, wild, abandoned, and disobedient. No wonder worry is a sin. But there's more.

 

We strive to make everything perfect for our children.  We think our presence wherever they are is what will keep them safe, assuming our involvement in every detail of their day will protect them.  We spend our lives for them. 

We forget that God wants us to spend our lives for Him.  He wants us to be good mothers, but His priority for our lives is for us to be good disciples of Jesus. 

 

When our involvement in our children’s lives creeps up to replace His involvement in our own lives, the enemy has succeeded in deceiving us.  We have taken on the job of being the god of our children’s lives.  And that is sin! 

 

It is only when we release our children from our arms into God’s arms that they are truly in a perfect place.  That is why prayer for our children will always be essential—for them and for us.  Through prayer, we are constantly reminded that God is God and we are not. 

We cannot control what happens to our children, whether they are in the same room or across the world.  We cannot make everything perfect for them.  We could spend all waking moments with them—at school, at soccer practice, at baseball’s games, at club meetings, at play times, chaperoning their every activity—but in reality, we haven’t the power to keep them safe.  Only God does.  We cannot be more than one of many influences in their lives.  But God’s Holy Spirit can be their greatest influence when they are in His embrace.  We can have peace that He is fully with them as He is fully with us.

Sometimes, when we release our children into His care, we learn that His plans for our children differ from our own.  I would not have allowed my son to seriously injure his knee the fourth day of his freshman year of college. It was not "good" in my eyes.  But God allowed what was meant for harm to have some good. This injury resulted in my son having to come out of his comfort zone, literally, into a place where the staff and students around him would come out of theirs to get to know him. It was a difficult first semester, but my son did well through it all. His leg gives him pain occasionally, but it hasn't stopped him from running marathons with his bride. We can trust our God's everlasting arms.

So, praying moms, "wear" your worry blinder.

 

Be anxious for nothing,

but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,

let your requests be made known to God;

and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 NKJ

Peace comes with God’s authority released in our lives as we pray according to His Word which doesn’t return null and void.

 

Shalom!