Parenting is not just a role, it’s an identity. Once you become a parent, you can never un-become one. The permanence of this identity is sobering. We parents grip fiercely this privilege to steward hearts and souls, but paradoxically, parenting is an unending, daunting task that reveals our smallness and dependence.
More often than not, I finish the week with my soul feeling the latter, still in the midst of the same old wearisome parenting battles. I’m still mulling over that thing I noticed about my daughter, wondering if I dealt with it the right way. I need to keep an eye on my son to see if he’s taking to heart the ongoing conversations we’ve been having. And am I missing any area where I need to repent and ask my children or spouse for forgiveness? My mental list of ongoing parenting to-do’s lengthens. The ‘long haul’ nature of parenting young hearts seems to yield few clear victories, the battleground stretching long with no perceivable end. As time flies by, the pressure to ‘get it right’ in our kids’ formative years mounts, yet the road ahead is etched with uncertainty. My heart craves assurance, and I feel bone-tired from the lack of reprieve.
It is often in this space that I arrive at church on Sunday mornings. So I’m grateful when hymns like “Great is Thy Faithfulness” minister perfectly to my parental fatigue, its encouragement like water to parched lips.
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be
These words remind me that the God who is infinite in power, capability, and wisdom, who needs no one’s help or counsel, chooses to be faithful to people who are desperately needy and helpless. He has no needs, yet binds himself to those who have nothing but needs, who are small and dependent. What comfort, what peace, what a breath of fresh air it is to sing, then, of his unfailing compassions. His goodwill and generosity towards us is not just once in a while, sporadic, or unpredictable, but as consistent as the sun that rises every morning.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside
His tender hand gives us everything that we need as parents: strength for parenting today – strength to keep on loving, listening, understanding, correcting, supporting, providing, guiding, enjoying – enough grace for that 24 hour cycle, guaranteed. And bright hope for tomorrow, because everything unfolds precisely within his sovereign plan. His good and perfect will for us and our children can never be thwarted, and we are assuredly inseparable from the love and favor of God in Christ.
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.
When my lips sing of his mercies, new each morning, my heart is strengthened. He helps me recall the multitude of large and small blessings he has shown my family, and there truly are so, so many.
But one stands out as the greatest and most needed mercy of all time: the cross. Jesus is the fulfilled promise, the ultimate display of God’s commitment to save sinful people who cannot save themselves. Our sin pardoned, we live in the grace of Jesus, our precious Savior. The blood he shed on the cross is how we can know and believe the depth and sureness of God’s faithfulness.
And so I remember, with great relief, that I am not the captain of this ship, and it doesn’t all hang on me. I can be weary, I can feel discouraged today, because the Captain on whom everything depends will never grow tired, will never err, will never abandon ship. He will steer us home.
Tired moms and dads, our Father sees us and knows our needs. We may be unsure in our parenting, but we can sing because God’s faithfulness is tested and true, steadfast and unfailing. He shows it time and again – definitively, once-for-all in Jesus, but also in the small mercies, in the lives of his redeemed ones, in your life and mine. What reassurance it is to be able to rest in his great faithfulness, for us and our children!
If you’re a weary parent, we invite you to come find rest with other parents at the 2023 Rooted Conference, where you’ll hear the good news proclaimed! Check out our one-day option for moms and dads.
