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This post is about parenting but can also completely relate to GRANDPARENTING. The feelings are very similar.

A Father to the fatherless, a Defender of widows,
is God in His holy dwelling.
Psalm 68:5 NIV

I recently was looking at pictures of my children and was amazed at how much they have changed in just a couple years.

They are all taller. My oldest son is maturing and turning into a young man right in front of my eyes. My younger son has lost a lot of that round baby face he used to have. My daughter is no longer a toddler.

And my husband is missing it all.

It makes me sad to think that John is never going to know the boys as men or my daughter as a woman. It seems unfair that the kids don’t have a father cheering them on at their baseball games or that my little girl doesn’t have a daddy to take her to the father/daughter dance.

I have worked through a lot of my grief over the last few years and am happy with where my life is going. But when I think about my kids, that progress slips away quickly.

But when I find myself going down that road, I have to stop and change direction.

My children may not have an earthly father any longer, but they are not fatherless.

Psalm 68:5 tells me that God is a Father to the fatherless. How could I ever ask for a better father for my children? The Creator of the universe, the Master of all that is, specifically states in His word He will be the father for my kids. Because my children don’t have an earthly father, they have a special place in God’s heart.

I don’t know if I have stressed the significance of this enough to my kids.

I admit I haven’t really thought to talk to them about how God has singled them out in His word. They should be in awe of God seeing them as His special children. When they feel different from other kids because they don’t have the physical presence of their dad, I should tell them how God is always with them. They long to have a dad to cheer them on, so I need to remind them that God is their biggest supporter. When they feel like something is missing in our little family, we will reflect on how our family is complete as long as God is in the center of it.

In order to be the reminder for my children however, I need to remember I’m not alone in this.

Oh, there are many days when it feels like I am. It’s hard to be the only one who does all the running around, cooking, cleaning, and disciplining. But God is the one who has the responsibility of determining their futures. That’s not my job. I need to let God be their Father and stop trying to be both parents.

I trust God to make sure my kids beat the statistics which say they will be dysfunctional because they grew up in a single parent home.

God is bigger than any statistic.

My children DO have a dad and he knows more about them than I ever will. He loves them more than I ever could. He not only sees the amazing kids they are becoming now, He sees the men and woman they will become.

I’m pretty sure He jumps for joy when they hit a home run too.

Father, thank You for loving our children and grandchildren in a way we can’t. We ask for protection over the hearts and souls of all our children/grandchildren. We believe that You can lead us in how to raise healthy, emotionally strong, and godly men and women. We know in Christ all things are possible and we claim that promise for the children in our lives. Father to the fatherless, Defender of the widow…this is Who You are to us. Amen