The God Who Stirs Hearts, Even My Children’s
Some promises sit quietly in your heart for a long time.
They are not forgotten. If anything, they are the ones you think about the most. The ones you pray about in the quiet places when no one else is listening. The ones that sometimes make your heart feel hopeful… and other times a little tender.
Lately, the promise I find myself holding onto almost daily is the promise of my children.
If you are a parent, you might understand this kind of waiting. Watching children you love deeply walk their own path. Sometimes that path looks different from the one you imagined when they were small and sitting next to you in church. Different from the prayers you prayed over them. Different from the future you pictured in your heart.
And if I am honest, learning to allow my children the gift of agency has been one of the hardest things I have ever done.
There is something in a parent that wants to rescue. To step in. To protect them from pain before it ever reaches them. To redirect a decision before it turns into a consequence. I think most parents feel that pull.
But the Lord, in His wisdom, honors agency. And that means sometimes the people we love most have to walk through experiences that stretch them.
That can be painful to watch.
And yet there is a promise that steadies me when those worries start getting loud. I believe with my whole heart that God is in relentless pursuit of my children.
Even when I cannot see it.
Even when their choices confuse me or stretch my faith. Even when I wish I could intervene and fix things faster. The Lord loves them even more than I do. Which is almost impossible for me to fully comprehend.
I believe their experiences are not wasted. I believe the Lord can consecrate all things for their good. Even the wandering. Even the detours. Even the seasons that feel uncertain.
This morning as I read Ezra 1, something about the story felt personal.
The people of God had been waiting a long time. Jerusalem had been destroyed. The temple was gone. Generations had passed in captivity. I imagine many of them wondered if the promises God made to their people would ever actually happen.
But then something unexpected happened.
Scripture tells us that the Lord “stirred up the spirit” of King Cyrus.
A king who was not even part of the covenant people. And suddenly a decree was made. The people could return. The temple could be rebuilt. What had seemed impossible for years began to move forward.
I paused when I read that phrase this morning. The Lord stirred the spirit.
Because it reminded me that God knows how to move hearts.
He knows how to work through people we never expected. Through circumstances we could not have arranged. Through moments that quietly turn a story in a new direction.
And it reminded me that God has not forgotten His promises.
Not to His people then. And not to our families now.
So the promise I am anxiously waiting on is this one. That the Lord will continue to pursue my children. That in His timing, through experiences only He can orchestrate, He will lead them back to Him.
And maybe my work right now is not to control their journey.
Maybe my work is to trust the God who is walking beside them.
Trust that He knows how to stir hearts.
Trust that He knows how to redeem every experience.
Trust that the story He is writing for them is still unfolding.
Some promises take time.
But Ezra reminds me of something I do not want to forget. God keeps His promises. Even when the timeline is longer than we hoped. Even when the path looks different than we expected.
And so today, I will keep praying. I will keep believing.
And I will trust that the same God who stirred the heart of a king long ago knows exactly how to reach the hearts of the people I love most.
