When I was 28 years old, I became licensed as a foster parent and welcomed two teenage girls into my home, who ended up becoming part of my forever family. As a new single mom to teenagers, I now had taken on the responsibilities of helping my daughters heal from their childhood trauma and parenting them through their stressful middle school and high school years. Too often I felt overwhelmed with all the challenges instead of feeling like my cup was running over with God's spiritual blessings. I was tempted to focus on what I lacked as a single mom:  

Then in my research on adoptive parenting, I learned that a crucial way for adoptive parents to build the bonds of attachment with their child is to meet their child's needs. This may sound oversimplified, but it is so important. Because the adoptive parent does not have a biological bond with the child, the child does not yet trust the parent or feel secure with the parent's connection with them. It takes years of meeting the child's needs day after day to build the bonds of attachment.  

God used my experience of adoptive parenting to highlight to me that He wants to meet my needs so I will trust Him as my Father more and more, just like I was trying to meet my daughters' needs so they would trust me as their mom more and more. I would pray the Lord's Prayer almost every day, and when I would get to the line, "Give me today my daily bread," I would pause and consider, in addition to food for my body, what are some of my needs I want to ask God to meet today--encouragement? comfort? energy? hope? wisdom? help with a task? money to cover a specific expense? Each day I talked to God about my needs and held onto the promise in Philippians 4:19: "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus." 

Even though as a single parent of teenagers, I lacked some things, I began to trust that God could fill in that lack with His creative ways of providing. In Psalm 34:9-10, we read, “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.” God has creative ways of meeting our needs! When I needed a room painted at my house, God provided friends who love to paint to come to my house and paint for me. When I felt overwhelmed with getting things done at my house, God provided a friend to come clean my house for free. When I needed help with transporting my daughters to their after-school sports and jobs, God provided my mom and two of my neighbors to give them rides. When my car was totaled in an accident, and I needed assistance in deciding which next car to buy, my dad helped me find a car and went with me to the dealership. When I was feeling alone, God provided my friend to plan my birthday party.  

But then when my younger brother died unexpectedly of surgical complications, I was grieving my brother's death while still carrying the weight of being a single parent, and one day I told my therapist, "I feel so much dread every Monday morning to start the week." I didn't feel at the time that my cup was running over; I felt emotionally depleted. My mind and body were so weary, and it felt daunting to muster up enough energy to handle my responsibilities in parenting and work for the week ahead. The therapist responded by asking, "On Sunday evenings, could you write down all the things that are causing you stress, and then pray and give them to God?" 

In my season of intense grief and overwhelming pain, the therapist's words were calling me back to the practice of asking God to meet my daily needs. But it was taking it one step further to begin my week with reminding myself of the truth that God is my Provider, and I can trust Him to be faithful.  

Even though my therapist told me this 6 years ago, I still find it important to pause on the Sabbath day and preach to myself that no matter what happens in the coming week, God is trustworthy to meet my needs. And because He is a good Father, He wants to give us good gifts. James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights." God not only wants to meet our needs, but He wants to bless us with gifts and spiritual blessings that will fill our cups to overflowing.   

 

Author: Mary Nolen

 

 

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Redefined exists to serve survivors of domestic sex trafficking and other at-risk women and girls by equipping them with life skills, meaningful employment, and ongoing support. Learn more about our mission at Hope Center Indy at hopecenterindy.org.

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