Many of us homeschooling moms not only have fears about our children but about our parents as well. This month in the Trust Project we will focus on trusting God with our parents.
What are the benefits of trusting God with our parents? For me, the benefits are less time spent worrying, a better relationship with my mom who is still living, and certainly a better relationship with God. What are the things we will stop doing this moth? I hope worrying is one of those. Perhaps we will stop trying to control our parents’ choices. If you have a parent who is not a believer, you might stop witnessing to them when it feels forced or fear based. What things will we start doing if we’re trusting God with our parents? Perhaps we will enjoy our time with them in the moment. If you are estranged from a parent, perhaps you will reach out to them. Or if your relationship with a parent is an unhealthy one, you might allow God to meet the needs that an earthly parent isn’t meeting. How will you know that you’re trusting God with your parents? You might have peace of mind, better conversations, or fewer conflicts with siblings over what to do about a parent’s care.
Next, we will work through the TRUST acronym.
T is for truth.
I love this Scripture. One of the fears we can have as our parents age is that we are now responsible for their care. Certainly we bear some responsibility, but God has never left our mom and dad. He is caring for them and we can rely on Him for that as much as we can rely on His care for us.
Our Bible account is Genesis 43. Joseph meets with his brothers in Egypt and asks after his aging father. It’s clear that Joseph is concerned about him. But he learns that he is alive and well. God had sustained him just as he had Joseph, even though he had suffered great sorrow in the loss of his son. God knows the number of our parents’ days and is in control of them. In fact, He doesn’t need our help to keep them alive and well.
This month, record the thoughts that lead you to distrust God with your parents. Then refute them with the truth. Repeat Scripture or just truths you would share with a friend who had the same fears.
The R in TRUST is for Remember.
At one time I thought my dad would suffocate and die. He had COPD. I know he thought that is how he would die as well. I also feared that my dad hadn’t put his faith in Jesus Christ. I wasn’t doing the Trust Project then, but I want to share what happened.
I received a call that my dad needed surgery and had only a 50% chance of survival. I was beside myself with grief. I cried out to the Lord for his life, opened the Bible randomly, and read words that gave me confidence he would live. He did.
A few years later, I happened to call my dad a day early for our weekly chat. Typically, when I had other plans on our chat night, I would forget to call until the next day. This was before I had a smart phone that would remind me. In our conversation, my dad affirmed his faith in Jesus. I was so happy. The next night, the night I would have normally called, I got a call from my mom instead. My dad had had a heart attack and died quickly thereafter. My father didn’t suffocate. And I knew where he would wake up. God can be trusted to care for our parents.
Remember how God has been faithful where your parents are concerned.
The U in TRUST is for Understanding.
What wisdom has God already given you for your relationship with or care of your parents. When a friend was caring for both her parents in their home, I sent her a book that was just for caregivers. She said it was a great help to her in a very trying situation. She knew from that book that it was critical for her to have respite care and take breaks. No sense crying out to God for help if you’re not using the wisdom He has already given you.
The S in TRUST is for Supplication.
For years I prayed that my mom who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 18 years ago would have more strength. The Lord answered that prayer far above and beyond what I imagined was possible. My mother’s illness went into remission two years ago. She is currently working as a caregiver for someone else.
Present your requests for your parents to God and believe that He hears them and will answer in His love and wisdom.
The T in TRUST is for Thanksgiving.
My father died when I was 31. He only met two of my children. I wanted more time with him, and I still miss him so much. But even as I mourn, I thank God for a father that was good enough to miss. What a blessing he was for over 30 years. I am thankful my dad is with Jesus and that he wouldn’t return here even if given the choice. I am thankful too that the Lord gave me men who served as fathers in my life after he passed.
Thanking God really does help to heal our hearts when something in our relationship with parents is lacking.
Conclusion
We can have peace and even joy where our parents are concerned when we believe the truth, remember God’s faithfulness, understand the wisdom He has already given us, pray for them, and thank God for all He’s done in our parents’ lives and in ours.
How do you struggle to trust God with your parents? Comment and let me know.
As usual, I’d like to begin by talking about how trusting God went last month. Our topic was trusting God with our kids. My daughter did not develop whooping cough, but she did get another diagnosis that we are praying will be treated effectively. I also had to trust my teen driver to get this same daughter to volleyball camp with a 40-minute drive in rush hour. And I always have to trust God with the choices my adult kids make.
This project has made a big difference in my anxiety level and has decreased the time I spend worrying. I pray that it is helping you too. I read a wonderful devotion in My Weakness for His Strength, Volume 2 by Michael Wells this morning. Michael wrote that the world attempts to brainwash us night and day that there is no God and even if there is, He does nothing on our behalf. We have to resist these lies by renewing our minds. That’s what the Trust Project is all about.
Why Trust God with Your Marriage or Single Parenting?
The first question to answer using your Trust Project printables is what are the benefits of trusting God with our marriage or with single parenting?
I know I will have a much happier marriage and much less stress. My faith in God will grow as I see the Lord working in and through my husband.
What Will Be Different if You Trust God with Your Marriage or Single Parenting?
Next, what will you stop and start doing if you are trusting God in this area? I will stop the compulsion to remind my husband to put safety first. I will believe that God is in control of my husband’s life and wellbeing. I will start praying for my husband more. I will add his safety and faith to my prayer list.
The next question is what would trusting God with marriage or single parenting look like? For me, it would mean telling my husband to have a good time on his outings without a safety reminder. It would mean entrusting Him to God in prayer. It would mean believing that God gives me guidance through my husband’s decisions.
Marriage and Single Parenting: TRUST
Now let’s move into our TRUST acronym. T is for truth. What is the truth about God and marriage or single parenting? Our Scripture to meditate on is 1 John 4:16:
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
Whether we are single or married, God loves us. We can rely on that. He will work all things together for our good. Our biblical account is from 1 Samuel 25. This is about Abigail who was in an unhappy marriage. She keeps David from avenging himself on her husband. She says something remarkable to him:
“The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.”
The respect she pays him and the belief in him had to have bowled David over. We know that when the Lord took her husband’s life, David married her. We can trust God to care for us even if our husbands aren’t trustworthy.
The next part of truth is addressing lies we believe in this area. One lie that I think both singles and married women believe is that we won’t make it without a husband.
I had a single friend whose car broke down. She prayed aloud. “Lord, You are my husband. If I had an earthly husband, he would take care of this car for me. But I don’t, so it’s all on You.” You can imagine what happened. The Lord sent kindly men to get her back on the road.
Another lie I’ve believed is that God only works through me and not my husband. In other words, there are some truths that only I have been privileged to understand. While it is true that my husband has made mistakes — don’t we all — I know I can trust God to protect me while I am under my husband’s leadership. Whenever I doubt this, I think of poor Sara who found herself in a Pharoah’s harem because of her husband’s decision. She was not only delivered but praised for continuing to honor her husband.
The R in TRUST is for remembering. How has God proved Himself trustworthy in your marriage or singlehood? There was a time in my marriage when I felt that I was destined to stay unhappy. I was so miserable because of the circumstances (and to honor my husband, I want to make it clear that he had not been unfaithful). I had no other option but to cry out to the Lord for help in changing my heart. That prayer was answered in less than a day. My love for my husband and my happiness were supernaturally restored.
The U in TRUST is for understanding. What has God made clear that you should do with respect to your marriage or singlehood? When my husband drives, I already know that I need to stop “bracing for impact” as he calls it. I have to pay him respect, even when he does something I disagree with.
The S in TRUST is for supplication. We pray for our needs to be met, apart from a relationship. We ask how we can serve God and our spouse better. And, of course, we pray for our spouses, believing that God hears our prayers for their faith, health, success, and relationships. We can ask for our husbands’ prayer requests. And we can make time to pray together. The divorce rate for couples who pray together is very, very low.
The final T in TRUST is for thanksgiving. Take time today to thank God for His provision in your single parenting or for your husband. I hear from moms all the time who are unhappy with their husbands’ traits that are so different from their own. But God puts opposite strengths together all the time with good reason. Thank God for that. Thank God for all the blessings He has given to your man. I am so thankful that the stroke my husband this March was not severe and that he is recovering.
The T in thanksgiving is also to remind us to thank those who protect and care for us, spouses included. When I was a single woman in college, an older gentleman from my church would come and get my car and have it serviced for me. What a blessing! I thanked him for his help with a sincere heart. But I am reminded today that I need to thank my husband for all the things he does for me and our family. I hope you’ll do the same.
Trust God with your singlehood or with your marriage. He is worthy of our trust. Next month, we’ll talk about trusting God with finances. So get all your worry about money out now. Just kidding!
Which is a bigger struggle for you: trusting God with your kids or your marriage? Comment and let me know.
I recently finished the audiobook The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod. In the book, Hal encourages us to choose a big goal that is in line with our values. He also encourages us to choose a goal that will make us better people — the kind of people who are able to accomplish our other goals. I was walking my neighborhood as I listened to his book. I considered a number of goals, including writing more books and getting into better shape. But the truth is, I’ve already accomplished similar goals. And those goals don’t necessarily line up with my highest value, which is my faith in God.
As I thought about my faith, my life verse came to mind: Proverbs 3:5-6.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
I continued walking as I thought and I had an idea. What if my goal was to trust God in every area of my life? In fact, what if I focused on trusting God in a new area every month? I could write about my experience, I could podcast about it, and I could invite people to join me. It would be very similar to what I did with A Year of Living Productively and The Organized Homeschool Life.
I’ve shared what a rough year this has been for me already–not really because of my friends’, husband’s and my own health and other scares–but because I haven’t trusted God. I’ve worried, I’ve panicked, I’ve cried. I’ve lost valuable time; my health has suffered; my happiness has suffered; and even my relationships have suffered. If I had truly trusted God, what a difference it would have made!
I was on board and ready to do it. But I’ve learned that jumping in before having confirmation from the Lord is a bad idea. So I prayed about it as I walked and researched the idea as soon as I got home. The very first link that jumped out at me in my Google search was a video on Trusting God by Chuck Swindoll. Chuck referenced Proverbs 3:5-6 and outlined the blessings of trusting God as well as the curses of not doing so that I’ve experienced to the full this year.
Chuck explained what keeps us from trusting God. Self-sufficiency. We think we can do it ourselves, but the responsibility is overwhelming. Asking friends for help. How often do we call on others to talk through problems before praying? Feeling distant from God. We think our emotions are a measure of God’s power when nothing could be further from the truth. The bad habit of worrying. We tend to think we can’t control our thoughts and while initial thoughts may be reflexive, what we meditate on is completely under our control. Impatience. We think God ought to deliver on a drive-through timeline, when so often quick action could be disastrous. We doubt. We think maybe God can’t or He just won’t. We prefer human counsel. We listen to experts who don’t even share our faith in preference to trusting God. We manipulate and take charge of a situation without being Spirit-led and only later realize that we should have trusted God instead. We toss and turn, trying to come up with solutions and often cling to people and things God is trying to remove from our lives for our good.
All this Chuck said to affirm that trusting God is the greatest goal I could undertake in my life. Then he said something that felt like it was just for me. He said, “Wouldn’t it be a great project…to think through ways that you can begin to trust God?” He suggested inviting a friend or mate to undertake the project too. I began to weep happy tears because I knew then that The Trust Project is my big goal for the year. I knew that I was to invite you and anyone you know who wants to grow in faith to join us.
The Trust Project
After this confirmation, I spent time thinking through all the areas of our lives that we ought to trust God with. We will take on one area each month. If you’re thinking that you don’t have time to do this now, know that this project isn’t about what we do but what we believe. Of course, I have a plan for us to grow in our belief, but it will take very little time. Yet, I know that the time we do spend will pay off in ways that we can’t even imagine now.
We will be using an easy-to-remember acronym for each area we focus on: TRUST.
T is for Truth. We will meditate on a Scripture for each area, read a biblical account that will fortify our trust in God in that area, and we will truth journal all month.
R is for remembering. We will remember how faithful God has been to us in that area of our lives, despite our worry and lack of faith.
U is for understanding. God has already given us understanding and wisdom in these areas of our lives that we must trust and obey.
S is for supplication. We will pray for God to meet our needs in each area and we will ask for Him to help our unbelief.
T is for thanksgiving. We will thank Him for being the loving, trustworthy God He is and for how He has provided, but we will also thank Him for how He will provide in this area of our lives going forward.
If the Lord leads, we can spend additional time reading additional books, listening to music, and watching videos that will further strengthen our faith in each area.
So will you join me? If so, you can download your free Trust Project Printables by clicking the button below.
All the areas of focus, Scriptures, Bible readings and journaling responses are included. When you opt to receive them, you’ll be added to a special Trust Project list, where you will receive only Trust Project updates. So if you have a Christian friend or family member who wants to join us, who is not a homeschooling parent, they can without getting unrelated email.
Trusting God with Our Health and Safety
Now let’s talk about trusting God with our health and safety–our area of focus for this month. I’ll take you through the TRUST acronym with my own responses.
The T in Trust is for Truth. Our Scripture to meditate on this month is Proverbs 3:7-8. “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” When it comes to health and safety, I have been wise in my own eyes. I have feared so many things that could make me sick or kill me. But trusting God has made me healthier!
Our reading is from 2 Kings 20.
In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,3 “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him:5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord.6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”
7 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?”
9 Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”
10 “It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”
11 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.”
Our journaling prompt question is: How does this Bible reading lead me to trust God with my health and safety? First, it makes it clear that God is in charge of my health and the length of my life. Second, it makes it clear that God will communicate with me about my health. If I am anxious, I can ask Him for wisdom and reassurance.
Next, what thoughts lead me to distrust God? This question is designed for truth journaling all month, but I will go through some of my current anxious thoughts with you about health and safety. I’m thinking, “I have to have a colonoscopy and the preparation will be horrible.” My truth reponse: You’ve survived it before and millions of people do it. God will get you through it. My next thought is: “I’m going to get into an accident and die unless I am watching anxiously while my husband or teen drives.” My truth response: God is in control. My anxious watching cannot save me because I am not in control.
R is for remembering. Our prompt is: How has God proven Himself trustworthy in your past? I have been healed of a gastrointestinal disease and chronic allergies–both of which are miracles. I have been protected from accidents countless times. I am still alive and well in my 50s, despite all my worrying.
U is for understanding. Our prompt is: What wisdom has God given you to believe and obey? God has shown me that I feel best when I exercise, get enough minerals, and avoid drinking soda. I have to obey that last part.
S is for supplication. Our prompt is: What is your prayer in addition to more faith? I pray that I would feel relaxed about medical testing I have done and that tests would show I am in good health. I pray that I would be kept safe as I travel, no matter who is driving.
T is for thanksgiving. Our prompt is: What can you thank God for now and in the future? I thank God for the good health I enjoy and for access to excellent medical care. I thank God that my immediate family and I have never had a serious car accident. I thank God that my life is in His hands and that He will care for me all my days.
I would love to have your recommendations as well. Comment below so others can see them.
Throughout this month, keep meditating on Proverbs 3:7-8. Read other Bible accounts of God’s healing and protection. Keep truth journaling, remembering God’s faithfulness, believing and obeying the wisdom He’s already given you, and praying and thanking Him.
Thank you for joining me in trusting God with health and safety. God bless your week!
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I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
