How to Face an Unknown Future With a Grateful Heart
Several years ago, I founded an online support group for Christian moms whose adult children battle addiction or alcoholism. As a result, the Lord gave me a bird’s-eye-view into the lives of some of the strongest women I have ever had the privilege of knowing.
Now, if you were to ask them, they would probably tell you otherwise. Instead, they shared their stories of fear, heartache, guilt, shame, and self-blame. That’s right. Sadly, many of these mothers blamed themselves for their child’s addiction. While most knew they had not forced their child to abuse substances, they couldn’t help but feel they should have been able to prevent it from happening. At the very least, they felt it their responsibility to fix and save their child from further self-destruction.
There were times, in their darkest days of despair, these dear moms felt alone, unseen, and unheard by God. Facing an unknown future, as their prayers went unanswered year after year, they began to question their faith. They wrestled with thoughts like, “How can God be silent for so long? How can he sit back and do nothing when today might very well be my child’s last day? Doesn’t He hear my cries for help?”
Gratitude When Prayers Go Unanswered
In the space between praying and receiving answers, the endless waiting wore these moms out. Many, me included, wavered between gratitude and ingratitude as the silence went on and on.
As I spoke with these faithful women, I realized how easily we can all fall scheme to the enemy’s lies that tell us God doesn’t care or is too busy taking care of people with “real” problems to pay attention to our puny little ones. But this is not the character of our Lord. He doesn’t ignore one of His beloved children by playing favorites with another. He cares for each one of us the same. Our problems matter to Him.
In 1 Peter 5:7 we read, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (NIV). Here, the scripture instructs us to throw every burden, worry, and concern onto Jesus because He is concerned for us.
Do you, like so many of the moms of addicted children, have problems that seem to go on with no end in sight? Do you sometimes opt out of praying because you feel you have burdened God with your relentless requests? I encourage you to not give up. I have been an eyewitness to women who felt like calling it quits. They threw their hands up in the air and cried out, “What is the use of praying? God isn’t listening, anyway! My child will never be free! I will never be free!”
But instead of giving up, a little seed of hope sprung up in their hearts. Perhaps it was the testimony of a mom in the group that encouraged them, one whose child finally asked for help and was now free from their bondage.
Or maybe it was another mother who shared how she went years not hearing a word from her child. She didn’t know if they were dead or alive. But she kept praying and asking the other moms for prayer. Then one day she received the call she had been praying for. Her son or daughter was on the other end of the phone, ready to change their lives. Together we corporately rejoiced with gratitude for answered prayer!
Gratitude for the Support of Others
When we are feeling overwhelmed in our seasons of waiting, we need the support of others. We cannot go through it alone. While it might be tempting to give up, it’s then we can ask others to help us carry our burdens to the Lord.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2, NIV
That is the beauty of being in the family of God. We do not have to face our problems alone. We have each other. We can ask for prayer, believing the Lord listens to the voices of faith who are standing in the gap for us. How grateful I am for sisters in the Lord who will pray for me and not let me give up! May you also find the support of others a source of strength in your seasons of waiting.
Meet Dawn Ward
Dawn Ward is a speaker, writer and biblical life coach. She is the founder of The Faith to Flourish, a ministry that equips women to cultivate resilient faith, grow through adversity, and live transformed lives. As part of her mission, she also ministers to women with loved ones struggling with addiction.
Dawn is the co-author of the book Still Standing After All the Tears Workbook: Faith in the Battle Edition. She is currently writing her first solo book, From Guilt to Grace: Freedom and Healing for Christian Moms of Addicted Children (ETA 2024).
Dawn has been married to her husband, Steve, for over forty years and is a mom to three adult children. You can contact her on her website and on most social media platforms.
Where to find her . . .
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.
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If you would like to cultivate rhythms in addition to gratitude that will empower you live on mission in your neighborhood, check out Cultivating a Missional Life: A 30-Day Devotional to Gently Help You Open Your Heart, Home, and Life to Your Neighbors. This small book will help you make a big impact in your neighborhood as you learn to let missional living flow from the inside out. Get the 30-day missional living challenge free when you purchase the book.
