To the precious Widow-Mama on Father’s Day…
I know how hard this day is.
I know how heartbreaking it is to watch your children grieve their father while others celebrate. I know how helpless you feel to ease their suffering or protect them from the harsh realities of life. I know the fear you face when you hear the statistics of growing up fatherless and the loneliness that overwhelms you when hard decisions must be made alone. I know the immense pressure you are under to get this right—for them. I know the shame of making mistakes and the guilt of not being “enough.”
I know, and I see you.
More importantly, God sees you.
May I tell you something I wish someone had told me all those months ago?
You weren’t created to be both parents for your children.
I know you know that more poignantly now, than ever. But what you may have forgotten in this difficult season is that God isn’t asking you to be both mother and father to those precious babies now, any more than He was when He created them. He just wants you to be faithful at being you.
How do I know this? Because He said so.
It’s not your job to fix what’s been broken or to heal their hearts. It’s His.
He never asked you to protect them from their testimony. He just asks you to point them to Him. The same One who comforts, provides for, protects and heals you is also able to comfort, provide for, protect and heal the souls He has entrusted to your care.
Do you trust Him? Show them how to trust Him, too. Teach them that He is enough!
Father’s Day can be tough on the fatherless, I know. But the child of God, though he may be fatherless, will never be Fatherless, and that is something to celebrate.
Oh, Mama, I hope you know how deeply loved you and your children are by our everlasting Father, Who will never, ever leave you or forsake you. I pray you’ll find comfort and rest in His promises today.
May He wrap us all in His embrace, and hold us tight, as we remember.
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
Psalms 68:5
