Blog Post: Let God Write Your Victory Song
Dear Intentional Mom, The struggles you go through have purpose.
Each roadblock and detour in your life or your child’s life equips each of you for your next step in life. As long as the hardships bring growth, then there was purpose in the pain.
I've had some pretty painful hardships. Even the most painful times in my life eventually has shown that there can be purpose in pain. Now that is not to say God caused my hardships, but that He brought purpose, and He brought good in the face of the difficulty.
I am not the mom I used to be, the wife I used to be, the Christian I used to be, before the hardships.
The hardships shaped me.
They've taught me to appreciate the good days and to cherish those I love.
The hardships have helped me see the rainbow in the rain.
They've brought me closer to God and to those who I bonded with during the troubles.
And, one of the most valuable purposes of all, to me, my hardships have impacted my influence in my children's hearts:
* I can speak to my kids with hope in the midst of their difficulty because I have experienced God's faithfulness.
*I can speak to them with peace in the middle of my pain because I've experienced God's goodness.
* I can speak with conviction in the midst of temptation, because I have learned that giving in to temptation brings heartache while staying strong through temptation yields God's blessings. I have lived on both sides of the temptation. The hardship had purpose.
My precious, precious mom friends, you may feel hard pressed on every side, as Paul did in II Corinthians 4:8-9, when he said, “We are hard pressed on every side, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. We are persecuted but not abandon, struck down but not destroyed.” That was Paul's victory song - his praise of God's rescue and redemption and steadfast faithfulness through the trials of life.
Allow God to write your victory song so that you can share it with your children as they go through difficult times - as they are crushed or perplexed or struck down.
Mama, without hardship you will not have a victory song to sing to your children. Hardship is necessary to produce a victory song and the victory song is your family's call to strength in Christ, your dependence on Him.
This past weekend, I put on a Michigan t-shirt and sat down to watch the Michigan game with my husband and one of our sons, because it's valuable to them. I cheered when their guy recovered a fumble and brought it in for a touchdown. I lamented with them when their guy tripped over his feet missing out on what would have otherwise been a clear path to another six points. And, I watched the victory dances at the end of the biggest moments in the game. Now their victory dances, to me, seem kind of silly, but we see victory dances or victory songs throughout Scripture. They are these times in scripture when God’s people sing their victory song of God's salvation through the situation.
Here’s a few examples…
🎵The Israelites sing a victory song after going through the Red Sea (Exodus 11).
🎵Moses sang a victory song at the end of his life (Deuteronomy 32).
🎵Mary the mother of Jesus sang a victory song after she found that she was expecting a child she had not planned on in a day and age where that meant many terrifying realities (Luke 1).
As hardships come, lean into the Lord and hold fast to Him. Choose His ways over yours. Take His wisdom as the only truth in a world where truth is almost impossible to decipher. Cling to His promises when things seem impossible. As you do this, He will carry you through storms.
And on the other side, you will be able to sing your victory song.
Do you know who will have been watching you through the storm, observing whether you, through your tears, continued to hope in the Lord? It is your children watching you and at the end of the storm they will know that Mama's victory song is real, that it is true, because they watched it happen. Let God write your victory song.
Our victory song is our call to strength for our family. It is our testimony with deep conviction telling our children that what they are going through does not have to break them because God will be with them as He has been with their mother.
Mom, your difficulty is an opportunity to become the mom, your kids need most. You know what kind of mom your kids need most? They need a mother who depends on God to be her sustainer, redeemer, protector, provider.
I come on the podcast and blog every week to tell you, “Mama keep going. You can do this.” I know it feels overwhelming, and it feels costly. And it feels exhausting. I've been where you are. And I'm still there plenty of days. I feel like I don't have what it takes plenty of times.
But, as intentional moms, we don’t take steps when we FEEL confident in ourselves, we take steps because we KNOW God is faithful. You can trust God to write your victory song because it is worth it for your child's sake. It's worth it for your family's sake. It's worth it for your sake.
Intentional mom, you don't have to have boundless energy, or all the answers, nor do you need 20 hands to accomplish the 20 tasks that are pressing in on you right now. You need to remain in Christ. When we do that. He is faithful to provide our resources, sometimes just in the nick of time, but they will come and it will be our victory song.
So, are you ready, my friend? How about we walk through our victory songs together one week at a time.
Connect with me, Val Harrison, The Practically Speaking MOM:
