The pit
The pit is something I know all too well.
The pit is vicious, unforgiving, blinding, and, better yet, crippling.
I will spare you the gory details of just how many pits I have fallen into.
For some, the pit of grief and heartache is a death: the loss of a baby, the loss of a job, a divorce, or, if you’re like me, a few of each of those. The thing is, the event or events that throw you into said pit are not likely what keep you there. It’s a culmination of us doing our best to get back up, push through, seek help, and then get knocked down again.
For me, it seems like the second I am about to throw my leg over the side and climb out, something comes along and unhinges my fingers from the edge, sending me plummeting back down, feeling like I am falling and will never reach the bottom.
The thing is, for us, the pit still requires parenting.
The parenting
Parenting is hard, and it is even harder when you feel crippled by thoughts, fear, or heartache. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Start off children in the way they should go and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (NIV).
As parents, it is our divine command to parent our kids with honesty, discipline, and love. I wish I could say our babies will not face pits of their own, but they will. So, as parents, we parent through the pit, if for no other reason than that our kids turn to the ways Jesus commands us to trudge through the difficult times.
Parenting was appointed to you, for you, to be God’s ambassador to those specific little (or not-so-little) people. The way we approach the pit is the way our kids will likely approach theirs in the future, just as we see in Proverbs.
The praise
In Scripture, we also learn that, on the other side of these battles, is a greater view. When we climb out, we know there is hope and wholeness—through it all, Jesus is good.
The only way to truly get through the pit is to practice the praise. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2–3 ESV).
Isn’t that how we want to parent and mirror our faith: steadfast in the way of the Lord who can bring us out of the pit?
In Kari Jobe’s new song, “Your Nature,” she says, “You will restore the years that shame has stolen / You keep the promises that you have spoken / I know this wasteland will be whole again / cause it’s your nature.”
This song is full of hope in a barren place, a pit, but God will prevail.
The other side
We can count it joy that we know the pit won’t last forever. For this exact reason, we can parent through the pit and know we are not only making our way through but also making a way for our littles (or not-so littles) who will not forget these teachings as they grow.
I encourage you today to make the pit a place of praise—the other side is near, my friend.
