Take it to the Lord in Prayer

 

Dear Mothers, Sisters, Friends and dear child of most High God,

Loving greetings to all in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s only our Loving God’s mercy that we are alive and healthy, so let’s all give the glory to Him. The Bible says in Lamentations 3:23 “His mercy is new every day.” . How encouraging it is to know that, His compassion towards us is fresh every morning, and each day is a gift, straight from His hand. 

We can trust Him, so as I had mentioned in my previous blog, here is the continuation…Part 2 about my Cancer treatment and the support system that helped me through this season of my life. 

Before I share I would like to share some tips for mothers, from my own  life experiences and a few points from the book I read titled  ‘Good Parenting.’ Mothers have great love for their children, that’s natural; the closest comparison of God’s love is a mother’s love. It’s supreme love. It says in Isaiah 49:15-17. The last verse says “though she (mother) may forget, I’ll not forget you.” That is our Heavenly Father. When my children were growing up, it was not as difficult to bring them up because we didn't have as much technology in those days and and our Children, they obeyed us whether they liked or not, this present generation as I see and hear it’s not so. Now all my children have become parents, I would like to share a few points which helped me, when I read a book on Parenting.

Bringing up children is one of the most well-researched subject in the entire field of social science.  For Mother’s Day, my daughter sent a lovely gift, beautifully packed. When I opened it, there was a nice cup inside. The words written on the cup goes like this: ‘For A Best Mother.’ many qualities were mentioned on that cup.I would like to mention a few here. A Mother should be a mentor, a nurse, a coach, a good listener, organizer, counsellor, an unconditional friend, a good teacher, psychologist, healer, and most importantly she should be a network specialist (present mothers), an important role model, and a good chef. This alone will not help our children to succeed in their spiritual and physical growth. As mothers we should always pray for our children’s protection against addiction of Social media of this present day technology, which is drawing them to go through a lot of anxiety, depression, eating disorders and other types of psychological disorders. There is a book which says ‘there’s no more important job in society than raising children,’ A much more important job, I would say is raising them up in a God fearing way. The Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it,” Proverbs 22:6. 

Another fact I’ve read is, we mothers should be knowledgeable about our child’s strengths and weaknesses. Each child needs to feel special in the family. A very important point this author writes, “Between the child and environment (Technology) clear and realistic boundaries should be set. We have to give them freedom with limits and freedom with structure. With instant gratification and abundance of happiness our children fail to appreciate incremental joy and satisfaction. Family meal times have made way to digital solitude. The absence of human interaction has squashed emotions and reciprocations.” A very important point which I want to mention is that our children are carried away so much on fleeting pleasures, which are false and temporary. I heard a story of a baby mosquito, once told her mother, let me go and see how the outside world is. Mummy said, no baby you are too small, baby mosquito didn’t listen, it went and came back, when mother asked about her experience the baby mosquito said everyone from small to big welcomed me by clapping their hands. Baby mosquito didn’t know that they wanted to kill her. We should be aware of the things that the world is offering our children. It will destroy them if they do not know how to use limits and boundaries. We can help them to be set free from this trap only by praying and committing them in the hands of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He will not put us to shame when we trust Him. The Bible says, we have to teach our children to handle failures and disappointments in a better way. It’s an opportunity to learn. It took Mr Edison 10,000 attempts to perfect the light bulb. He didn’t look at this 9,999 times as a failure; he looked at each step as a finding. “9,999 ways that do not work”. These nudges will stand by the child during the most difficult times of their life. We have to teach our children perseverance and patience. They have to overcome the fear of failure, have the grace to accept failure and to stand by what is right. We have to understand that mistakes and failures are inevitable in the journey of life, we have to teach our children to move on in life, and keep their wants and expectations simple and few & dismiss regrets and fretting. 

Dear mothers, we need not be discouraged by these. God’s ways are different from man’s ways. We need to simply commit our children in God’s hands, He will take care of them. He wants us to look up and trust Him. He will move any situation into a miracle. 

Now a few lines about me: I’m back to normal now, and I thank you all so much for your prayers for me. I wrote about the support system, it is much needed when we go through sickness like this. Prayers, love, encouragement , all these boost our energy and it increase our immunity, they are a vital feel good factor.

First let me thank my husband, because from the very first day onwards before leaving the house to the hospital for treatment we will ask him to pray, every time when he prayed, he will pray like this “Thank you Jesus for healing my wife.” That kept going for almost a year till I got healed. He was positive all the time. I thank God for him every day. Many brothers and sisters prayed for me, many have not seen me or know me, but still they continuously prayed for me. About my son Vinay and my niece Kala I’ve mentioned earlier, mere words not enough to thank my son Vinay and Kala my niece. Then my children and their spouses, I’m so thankful to God for them, who walked an extra mile, who took care of me spiritually, financially and physically. All glory to God alone who enabled them to stand with me. And my sons-in-law who prayed continuously for me. Particularly I have to mention, bro. Nelson and his wife (my daughter in law’s parents) along with their family who prayed every day for me. 

Then comes my extended family, who carried me through their prayers every day to our Heavenly Father. Like we see in the Bible, four friends who carried a paralytic man to Jesus; they never gave up till they saw him getting healed. These friends have been with me for the past four years. They never gave up; every day they carried me to our Father in heaven. I’m not going to mention their names, but God will reward them. I have to thank Bro Stephen and Jemima for your valuable prayers. Pastor Solomon, who was our great strength and support throughout my journey. Thank God for such a kind and gentle spirit God has given him. My special thanks to my eldest daughter who has taken extra time of being there whenever it was possible. She became my closest friend during the crisis of my life. Thank God for her husband George who took care of children and allowed her to care for me whenever I needed her help. 

Prayers of many brothers, sisters and friends made me feel encouraged and better every day of my journey as I was going through this terrible sickness. 

As I reflect on my son's birthday today, the same feeling of loss and grief fill my heart when I think of my son Vijay whom the Lord called home 4 years ago. My son Vijay would have been 41yrs this year. It still aches my heart every day when I think of him. Whenever I think about Vijay’s passing away and my illnesses, this song comes to my mind. It is an old hymn, written by a Joseph scrivener, “What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear, and what a privilege it’s to carry, everything to God in prayer.” He wrote this song to his mother as an encouragement to her when she was sick,  he is encouraging her to pray and press on, no matter what our struggles are, Jesus would listen to us. The words of the song are profound and true. Years later Joseph Scrivener the author of this hymn, got engaged, excited to get married, but the day before his wedding his soon to be wife drowned and died. The last verse of this hymn says “can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share, Jesus knows our every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer.” Years go by and he loses another fiancée due to sickness before they could get married. Through all this he was encouraged by what he wrote to his mother; ‘taking everything to the Lord in prayer.’ 

Yes, my dear mothers, we do go through a lot of crushing and pains in our life, let us remember that we have to take it to the Lord, everything to Him in prayer. “Oh what peace we often forfeit, And oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” This is the confidence that we have, that if we ask anything according to His will He will hear us and answer us. Let us take everything to the Lord in prayer. 

Love,

In Christ