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Hi {FIRSTNAME Friend},
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Do you ever feel like you are not effective in motherhood? Perhaps you thought you knew what your family life would look like . . . and it’s not turning out that way.
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Consider this verse from Exodus 13:17:
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 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If
they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’” |
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As a parent, it’s easy to wish for maximum efficiency. It would be nice if we could just move neatly from one milestone to the next as we raise our children and mature ourselves.
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How striking, then, to have a blunt statement that God purposefully led his children in a less-than-efficient way. He purposefully led them in a circuitous route because he had a more important goal for
them than efficiency – in this case, he didn’t want them to lose heart.
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If you find yourself in a season that feels like inefficient wandering, that doesn’t mean you’re out of God’s plan. It doesn’t mean you’re messing up. Think of that beautiful poem in Hebrews 11, which recalls
many heroes the faith. The author says of some that, “They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in the ground.” And right before that the author says, “the world was not worthy
of them.”
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In other words, these heroes of the faith wandered. They did not always have a recognized place in the world.
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Yet, as you know, even inefficient wandering can have a purpose. And sometimes, it is the only way to reach your goal in the end. If God had led the Israelites straight through the Philistine territory,
they might have abandoned the entire journey altogether. So in the end, God’s way was much better.
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As you journey on, remember that the author of Hebrews tells us to run with perseverance the raced marked out for us.
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We are on a course. The course might take us all over the place, but the end point remains, and we are pressing toward our goal of investing in the lives of our precious children. If we keep our eyes on
Jesus we will grow and so will they. Our journey has a destination.
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God bless you in that journey. And Happy Mother’s Day.
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Blessings to you and yours,
Sarita Holzmann Co-founder and president of Sonlight Curriculum |
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