As I packed his backpack, I wondered if I ordered the right one. Was L.L. Bean still a good choice to carry his nap mat, lunchbox, and folder? Would he be made fun of if the backpack isn’t actually cool anymore?
As we shopped for back-to-school clothes together, he suddenly separated himself from me, choosing his own look: athletic branding in a sea of performance fabric.
He drove off to high school without a look back at me, his brake lights (thankfully) signaling a respectful full S-T-O-P at the corner stop sign.
He is picking out a practical desk lamp for his college dorm. It’s not his favorite, but it will do. We pack it along with sheets, towels, and a Keurig in preparation to move him to a college that will become “home” for him.
The only constant in parenting is change. Even expected and desired milestones bring with them nerves and fears and cause parents to have to recalibrate their expectations and emotions.
Yet God’s promises remain the same even amidst the seasons and challenges of parenting.
A Promise for Joshua
In the book of Joshua, God prepares his people for the next season. Moses, who had brought the Israelites out of Egypt by God’s hand and direction, will not enter into the promised land with them. Instead, his assistant, Joshua, will lead them as Moses’ successor.
The Israelites’ home in Canaan is the fulfillment of a promise made to Abraham generations before to give his people a land of their own. The Israelites dreamed of the day they would enter this land.
While this land flows with milk and honey, the Israelites’ fear of the people living in the land kept them from entering it earlier. I would imagine that the Israelites had some residual fear about this new season and place. I would also bet that Joshua was feeling the pressure and nerves about leading this group of people, who, like us, have a history of doing things their way and not God’s.
Would the promises God made to Abraham and Moses remain the same under the Joshua’s leadership? Would what God said to his people generations ago still be true for the generation who was poised to take hold of the promise?
God has a very clear answer to Joshua as he begins his new season of ministry and leadership: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:9).
While God promises land to the Israelites, more importantly, he promises his presence. Joshua is commanded to be strong and courageous not because of Joshua’s own strength, might, power, or prowess, but because God is with him wherever he goes.
God’s presence is a part of the promise his initial promise to Abraham: “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Gen. 17:7, emphasis added).
The restoration of God’s people to himself is his ultimate promise to us, traced throughout the books of the Bible and culminating in the birth of his Son Jesus. Also called Immanuel, meaning “God with Us,” Jesus came to earth to be physically present with his people. He lived the perfect life that we, like the wandering Israelites, could not live. Not only did Jesus heal our broken relationship with God, Jesus will finally bring the complete restoration of that relationship when he comes again. But until then, the Holy Spirit dwells within thos who believe in Jesus as our Savior, assuring us of God’s presence in our daily lives and interceding for us to God the Father.
A Promise for Parents
As a parent, I am encouraged by God’s response to Joshua in this situation. While these words were spoken to a man who lived in Old Testament times, God’s Word and his character are reliable and constant. The promise spoken to Abraham and Moses did not change under a new season of leadership. Likewise, God’s promise to be with me does not change in a new season of parenting.
Yet, the unknowns of raising children do not always make it easy to feel God’s presence. We do not always see fruit from our parenting efforts or see God’s work in our children’s lives within the timing we want, nor do we find it easy to trust that everything will all work out.
I know that I am called to have faith that he is at work and to believe that his presence is more than enough in the midst of both easy and hard parenting seasons. Yet in the times of deep loneliness, fear of the future, or just sheer frustration and exhaustion, I confess that I would prefer a “seen” God and tangible results over the presence of God who can feel far off, who produces slow-growing fruit.
Even taking hold of the promise that God is with you and your children will require the same enormous strength and courage that God tells Joshua to have.
Our faith—our strength and courage, too— may be lacking as we grow alongside our children into different seasons of life. But where we lack, the Lord God more than sufficiently supplies exactly what we and our children will need. As I step into the next season with my children—be it comfortable or uncomfortable—God’s faithfulness to his promise is undeniable when I look to the Cross.
Jesus was my strength and my courage when he lived and died for me. Jesus believed the promises of God where I, like the Israelites, fail to believe God will do what he says he will do. And because of Jesus’ saving grace, I am emboldened to rest in the presence of God, trusting that where I fall short, he will indeed provide in every season of life.
Living In the Promise
I am back home after settling him into college. His favorite clothes and his concert posters hang in his dorm room, three hours away, not upstairs in my house. His room feels eerily neat and un-lived in; the simple act of grocery shopping reminds me that I’m cooking for one less person. The path ahead feels like a new dance, and I don’t know the steps.
I remind myself: “Be strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go,” As I look back to the days of homework folders and nap mats, of pre-teen angst and middle school, of a new driver and prom, and I see the promise played out through all of those seasons. God was with me all along. His promise to be with me was true then and will be true now.
Looking back at how God has been present and at work in my life and my child’s life, I can walk forward in God’s strength and with his courage.
Parents, join us for Rooted 2024 in Dallas, Texas, October 24-26!
