Compounding Struggles

Parenting has its struggles, no matter what the age of our children.

But as children get older those struggles seem to touch more deeply. We move from skinned knees and sleepless nights to journeying with our children through chronic health issues, difficult life choices, and adult relational struggles.

There seems to be a deeper gravity to our concern and prayers as we mature as parent-priests.

The ache we feel for them, and the longing we hold for their well-being, become integrated with our own day-to-day experience of life.

The struggles our children face weigh on us, and continue to do so for as long as those struggles exist – sometimes for a lifetime.

Add to this our spiritual, emotional, and physical struggles in our own journey – often feeling we must hide those struggles to protect our families from our private fears, hurts, and longings. Onward we trod, trying to keep a brave face – carrying in us the suffering of our family members, in addition to our own heavy, private burdens.

In this reality, how do we keep journeying with hope?

The sun comes up. It is a new day – a new dawn and a new beginning. A resurrection. We set our face toward God’s Kingdom. And we ask God for His faithful love – not merely to sustain us for that day, but to fill it with joy and gladness.

Each activity in our day becomes a hope-filled step further into His Kingdom. He is the God who over-writes our adversity with freedom, healing, and delight. And the full measure of His Kingdom is coming!

This perfectly describes the timeless journey of God’s People – Our journey. And those who have gone before us show us how to pray for 'God's Kingdom coming' in the midst of the journey: 

LORD – how long?

Turn and have compassion on Your servants.

Satisfy us in the morning with Your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days.

Make us rejoice for as many days as You have humbled us, for as many years as we have seen adversity.

Let Your work be seen by Your servants, and Your splendor by their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands – establish the work of our hands!

– Psalm 90:13-17