Verse Cards

This card was on my refrigerator for years.

One of the hardest things about being a mom has been watching my kids do hard things, because hard things are, well, hard. I want our Boys to be stronger, more capable, less fearful than I have been, though, and the only way for them to exercise these strength and capability and fearlessness muscles is by doing hard things.

Almost as soon as they could read I began tucking verse cards into their backpacks or lunchboxes on days when they knew they would have special challenges. Whether they were facing math contest or the ACT test or class elections, the verse was always the same one, Isaiah 41:10:

"Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Every once in a while I come across one of these cards taped to the back of a calculator or stuck in a pocket of a notebook and I am glad we have trusted our Boys to the One who is wiser and more powerful than their parents.

I thought of  the cards yesterday when I heard that a beloved young mother in our church was having health problems. I want to save her, too, from the hard things that wait for her in the next few weeks, but I can't. I can only be thankful that she is strong and capable, and that God's promises are for her as well.

"Do not fear, T. and K., for God is with you. He will strengthen you, and help you, and uphold you in His righteous right hand."