Pray With Meናሙና

Safe in the Storm

When reflecting on my own high school years, I’ve often thought, How can I keep that from happening to my kids? It’s natural to want to prevent our children from encountering hardship. But notice that God doesn’t keep the tree in Jeremiah 17 from experiencing tough circumstances. In fact, God oftentimes uses storms to strengthen our relationship with Him.

It reminds me of when my nephew got his driver’s license. Instead of stressing and trying to prevent things from going wrong, my dad thought ahead to what might solve the problems my nephew would face as a driver. He gave my nephew a bag containing a car battery charger, road flares, a blanket, a flashlight, and emergency food, along with the understanding that no matter what happened, my nephew could always call Grandpa Tom for help.

If we want our children to have a strong and resilient faith that can weather the trials they will face throughout their lifetime, we must stop trying to prevent storms and start preparing for them.

After reading an article about the unrest in yet another country recently, I couldn’t help but think, If we heard bombs going off each night and knew the imminent threat of being hit, captured, or separated, how might I talk to my children about Jesus and about prayer?

I want to seek God with that kind of urgency. I want my children to trust Him like their lives depend on it. Because they do.

Each and every breath we breathe is from God. The only one we can truly count on is Him. The only thing that is truly stable and unchanging is Him.

And what better way to prepare our children for storms than to introduce them to the One who calms the storm, who “even the winds and the waves obey” (Matthew 8:27)? As we think through the trials our kids might encounter, the conflicts they might face, the pain they might endure, the most valuable thing we could ever do for them is to bring them to Jesus—the only One who can sustain them through the storm, deliver them out of it, and make them stronger because of it!

God, I trust that You are in control—and that is so much better than me being in control! How do you want me to prepare [child’s name] for storms to come? Amen.