The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is one of my all time favorites. I adore the peace that comes from knowing even if I get thrown into the fire, God will be there with me. And life has felt like fire lately. I have been working incredibly hard to grow a private practice while working full time in a school district, in addition to my most important duties as a mom and a wife. Lately, the mom role has weighed especially heavy. It’s been rough.
My kids are amazing. They are. In so many ways, AMAZING! But they are in the fire. And although I know God is in there with them, it’s all I can do not to run in and try to rescue them myself. So badly I want to take it away from them. Any difficulty they experience – I would give my life a thousand times over to rescue them.
But here’s the thing, that’s not my role.
If I run into the fire to rescue them, I will burn up. Because it’s who I am…I am a human. My flesh is not designed to endure the fire. But Jesus is not man – He is God – and He endures the flames just fine.
I see Jesus with them, I really do. I see evidence of Him walking with them – over and over and over again. I see Him holding up his hand, looking at me, and saying “relax mamma, I got this.”
And I know He does. But it’s not easy. Because I have been in the fire, knowing Jesus is with me, but the fire is HOT none the less. And as a mamma we want to fight the battles for our kids. When they are small, we often can. But there comes a point we have to step back and choose to see them fight it with Jesus for themselves. And that is hard and painful and weird and challenging – and rewarding – incredibly rewarding.
Because of Jesus your kiddos will be okay. Your pre-teen will make it through her spells of emotionally charged craziness just fine. Your teen will slip up and do some crazy a** sh** and Jesus will be there to pick up the pieces. No mistake is too great as long as we learn from it. There’s nothing going on with them that is greater than the greatness of God. And because of that we can pray, love, watch, and even be still – knowing we can’t jump in the fire – but Jesus can. And He’s pretty dang good.