Scarcely able to keep her eyes on the road, she began yet another grueling 30 minute drive to her daughter’s court day. These hearings had went on for months now, and this one would make a year she had dealt with this.
Her soul was weary. Her hands shook unsteadily while gripping the steering wheel. Great big welling tears spilled out of her broken heart right onto her strained face. Her legs were shaking, her whole life had been completely shaken!
Where had she gone wrong? She had lived for God all those years, right? That had to account for something with God–had hidden His Word in her heart, prayed many intercessory prayers as the Spirit led her, and had been faithful to God with all her heart, in the midst of a dysfunctional home.
But in spite of it all, her oldest daughter had slipped away from everything she had been taught and modeled before her.
More tears came, and she prayed more intense prayers of “Not my Will, Lord, but Thine be done.”
For you see, months earlier, this desperate mother had been on her knees in her bedroom floor, weeping before the Lord. Opening her Bible, she felt God speaking to her heart–giving her a promise.
“Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.” Jeremiah 31:15-17
”I hear you Lord,” she said aloud, “loud and clear.” Wiping away the tears, she wondered how she could give her daughter to the Lord and let Him have His way. She simply didn’t know how. Proceeding on, she began reading a devotion, and it was the perfect one!
It told the story when God had spoke to Abraham to offer up Isaac, his son, as a living sacrifice to the Lord.
As the mother read on, she discovered two clues that opened her understanding. What a revelation!
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and COME AGAIN to you. Genesis 22:5
“And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” Genesis 22:8 KJV
Abraham had known that God would not let him down. His son had questioned where the sacrifice was, and this must have hurt Abraham deeply in his flesh. But his spirit stood strong on His faith with God, believing that they both would truly return.
Even though he had no real proof, it could very well have gone either way. He bravely SPOKE great words of faith! And believed that God wouldn’t let him down. He would make a way.
The devotion went on to say that for every step that Abraham and his son took, there was a ram on the other side of the mountain walking with them, matching them step for step–The ram the Lord had prepared all along for the burnt sacrifice.
While Abraham was raising his knife to slay his son, the angel of the LORD called to him out of Heaven and told him to do no harm to his boy.
“…for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Verse 12
“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”
Verse 13
The mother winced, closing her already swollen eyes and realized the Lord was speaking yet again to her spirit.
“Give her to me. I love her more than you can ever imagine. She’s my daughter, too. Trust me,” she felt the Lord gently saying.
The mother couldn’t help herself. More tears flowed. She spoke her fears aloud. “Lord, I give her to you. I won’t ask you to keep her out of prison. You know what’s best.”
With that, the mother fell crumpled onto the carpet into a fetal position, weeping uncontrollably. She finally understood how, and just let go of all fear of the unknown and to her control in the situation. Peace filled the room.
……The mother and daughter sat on one of the wooden benches that lined the courtroom in rows. Mom casually reached into her purse, feeling for her Bible. She wrapped her hand around it. It gave her strength and comfort knowing that the Word was God Himself with her. She was not alone.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.”
John 1:1 KJV
She had not asked anyone to go with her to any of the court dates. She was too ashamed to let anyone know what was going on with her daughter.
“All rise,” the words were spoken, as the judge entered the courtroom. He proceeded to his seat and sat down. “You may be seated,” the Judge stated.
The judge made it known that this was the last hearing concerning the matter. This was it!
After waiting patiently for all the other court cases to be tried first, the daughter’s would be last.
The judge called the public defender lawyer and the District Attorney into his chambers. They collaborated. The public defender approached the mother and daughter, afterwards.
She told them it had been decided that she wasn’t to be charged, since it was her first offense. The defender stated, “We are going to sweep your case into a neat little file. If you ever get in trouble again for anything else, that file will be taken out and you will be charged. Now, get out of here and go live your life. And STAY OUT OF TROUBLE!”
Daughter and mother descended the stairs in shock. “I can’t believe this!” The daughter cried. They hugged each other and rejoiced that God had been in control all along. He had provided the Lamb! 🙌🙌🙌
What a incredible story!
I had to do that with my dad. I knew 6 months before my family did that my dad had cancer. One of the many nights of me praying and crying out to God for my dad not to have cancer. One night I was crying uncontrollably and I asked God “Why do I feel like this if he doesn’t have cancer?” And I heard/felt God say so softly “You have to Trust Me!”. I knew right then my dad had cancer but a peace came over me and I knew God had it in His hands. It was such a deep moment. It’s still all in His hands.❤
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Isn’t that just like the Lord, V, to let us know things so we can be prepared and pray? When God asks us to trust Him, He has a plan to work it to the good. Thank you for your kind words. Praying for you, your dad and all your family. 😘🤗❤️🙏
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Yes, it is! Yes, He does! You’re welcome!❤ Thank you so much!❤
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Oh Vanessa, I am so very sorry to read about your dad. My dad had stage 4 cancer and went through hell………at this moment in time, he is currently cancer free. I will send up prayers for your dad and your family.
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I’m so glad he is cancer free! That is awesome! Thank you so much!❤
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thank you……..please know that I am praying the same exact outcome for your dad too!
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Thank you so much! It means a lot.❤
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You are always welcome sweet girl! ❤️🤗🦋
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it is my pleasure Vanessa, I hope you are feeling a bit better today.
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Thank you! I actually am feeling a little bit better. I was able to sleep last night. ❤
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Yay! another prayer sent for healing. Amen!
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Amen!🙏❤
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Amen!
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Beautiful story, Renee! A picture of trust and surrender ☺️
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Thanks so much Deandra! That we can have in Him! 🙂🙌
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Very encouraging post, Renee! Thanks for sharing. 😊 ❤
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You are welcome Tina! Thanks so much for reading! 🙂❤️🤗
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My son left his wife and two children, one only 3 months old several years ago. Hardest thing we as parent have endured. I felt compelled to pray this way, God make my son miserable in his sin. I ask everyone I knew to pray this way, and believe it or not , I got some flack about praying this way. I believed my son had the Holy spirit in him and where ever he went the Spirit went. He moved in with us for a while and I would go into his room when he was gone and touch his shoes, clothes and pray, make him sick of his sin. Because we allow him to share an apartment with us his x wife finally let him have the two children overnight every other weekend. I did not wash his clothe, clean his room, did not watch his kids when he had them, I was not his maid or live in baby sitter while he run around when he was not working. He did as we ask, He paid a third of the rent and utilities and when he ran out of money and could not pay us we ran a tab for him. He usually owed us his whole bonus check with his job, but he paid it. It was a tough set of rules but worth it to not be taken advantage of. my husband and I knew God would work through the grand children and our son did love them but he loved himself more or he would not have left them. A couple of time she had girlfriends and we said you can bring them to our house but they cannot stay all night. He respected that. I cannot tell you if something big happened to our son but slowly he begin to think different, such as. His x was dating too and he begin to think about someone else bring the kids daddy too, he did not like that thought. We begin to see the cracks of conviction get bigger and one night he came home so drunk, sick drunk. My husband stayed up all night with him and the next morning when he work up he was in tears telling us he had made a mess of his life. We said, yes, you have but God still loves you and so do we. try to right things. Long story short, he and his wife remarried and they now have three children instead of two. They still have issues but are determined to not let divorce come into their life again. Our son is walking with the Lord again and God has used him to help others going through what they went through. for us as his parents we had to believe God loved him more then we did to exercise some tough love. We give all the credit to God and are grateful we got to be a part of the journey in our sons life. Matter of fact we now share a house with our son and family, whole different reason, cost of living in southern Ca. There are so many times we are helpless as parents in our children but God never is.
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Betty thank you sooo much for that encouraging testimony! Tough love, tough rules, and relinquishing all control is never easy, but is necessary for God to get their attention. You know, I really feel you need to take your comment and make a post about this! It was very very encouraging! I believe there are people out there who need to hear it! 🙂😍
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Thanks Renee, I did have our son write out a testimony for my blog a couple years ago but I did not add this part to it, its the story from his side. thanks for the challenge.
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You are welcome Betty. It’s a wonderful wonderful testimony!
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thank you so much for sharing this story………….I love how all of your prayers were answered.
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I’m so thankful we can put everything in His hands and watch Him work it out for the good!
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God bless you Renee.
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😍❤️
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Beautiful story of redemption!
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Thanks! Where would any of us be without His redemption?! 🤗
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Lost! Lost! Lost!
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A to the men on that one!😀
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🤝
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Wonderful story Renee. Beautifully written
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Thanks so much Yonnie!😄🤗
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You are welcome
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😄
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Thanks for this encouraging story Renee. 💕
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You’re welcome Dawn❤️🤗
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What a truth.:)
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Thanks🙂
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Great post.
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Thank you much! 🙂
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Prayer is a powerful thing!
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It’s amazing how powerful it truly is!
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This is a beautiful story Renee. I worked with kids in similar situations in a past job and I would go home and pray for miracles in their lives………..you wrote this situation with such compelling conviction. very well done.
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Thanks Wendi! I’m so glad you were in those kids lives to pray for their miracles! ❤️😍
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that is such a gracious thing to write………thank you.
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Welcome friend!🤗
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God bless you!
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Thanks and you, too Wendi! 🙂😃
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thank you so very much 🙂
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Incredibly beautiful story. ❤️
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Thanks Kim! 🙂
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Your welcome🙂
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😀
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The Prayer of a mother… prevails indeed! A lovely share!
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Thanks! It sure does! 🙂
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Inspiring beautiful writing, prayer is powerful!!
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Yes it is, especially with friends! 😉
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💯🌺🌻🙏🌊🐝😘
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Love you my Bee friend!🌷🐝
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[…] Heart Tokens […]
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Dawn I noticed that my comment hasn’t shown up on your side…I’m still having unresolved issues with WP. Sorry! Hope you can see this comment!
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As a mother, my own heart breaks daily for my daughter, who recently turned 18. She’s not in any trouble, and I couldn’t imagine she ever would be, lol… but she is in utter torment… lost, depressed, anxious, and completely unaware that she has ANY worth whatsoever. I do everything I can to assure her, but God recently spoke to me and said now it’s on HER end to believe it. And so that’s what I pray… that her eyes will no longer be blinded… that she will have a very real encounter with the One True God and feel what it’s like to be loved, and then learn how to accept that others, including her dad and I, REALLY DO LOVE HER! I know many of the emotions here all too well… thank you so much for sharing ❤ Bless you!
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My own girls struggled with those same feelings of unworthiness, as well as myself growing up…. I believe it’s the enemy’s tactics to ensnare us all. If he can get you feeling like you are unworthy or unloved, he can take away your power to do great things for God. That’s why I wrote the following poem. I also wrote one for boys, called My Little Prince you will be. I will be praying for you and your daughter, that she finds her confidence in God. That’s where it starts. Knowing how much He loves us and cherishs us. That’s actually what my blog is all about. The Love Tokens, (mine are hearts, dragonflies and now also butterflies) or Love Letters He sends to show how much we are loved! We are so much loved! He wanted every one of us and planned our birth!🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 Much prayers for your sweet girl!
https://hearttokens.home.blog/2019/06/25/my-little-princess-you-will-be/
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Thank you so much for those prayers!! We do not have a Christian support system nearby “in real life”, lol, as our home church is 40 minutes away, and knowing that someone else is praying is like a balm to my soul ❤ I talk to her as much as I can… as much as she will allow… about God's pure and amazing Love for us. I'm hoping that the seeds planted are ones that will blossom and bloom in abundance! I can't wait to read the poem. Thank you!
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You are welcome! It’s hard when church is so far away. And it definitely helps to have others standing in agreement with us in prayer!
I sure remember my girls at that age…It was tough! The pressure they were under with peers and life in general…She will appreciate your gentle love and teaching about God one day. Thanks for reading! 🙂 🙏🏼
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Praise God… so good to know we’re not alone! God is so good!
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Amen to that! 🙌🏼
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Simply Wonderful!
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Thanks so much for reading, David. God Bless!
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