Three Ways Our Weaknesses Benefit Us In Parenting

“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9

This is what the Lord said to Paul after Paul begged the Lord to take away a weakness in his life. Can we just sit with this verse for a moment and think about how we would have responded to this assurance that the Lord gave Paul.

I’m pretty confident I would have said something along the lines of, “God, thank You for Your grace. I appreciate that. I really do. But I don’t think You heard me right. I don’t want affliction. I don’t like feeling weak. I want to be awesome. I want to be strong. I want to be self-sufficient and perfect. I guess what I’m saying, Lord, is that I don’t want to need You or have to rely on Your power. I’d rather be You.” 

So what hope does this passage give us as moms? The Lord’s gracious assurance to Paul is the very same assurance He gives to you and to me. So we can boldly respond, “I can be glad to be honest with my children about my weaknesses so that the divine power of Christ can work through me in my parenting.” 

Our weaknesses: 

• help us parent from a posture of humility; 

• keep us reliant on God to provide everything we need to parent the children He has entrusted to us; and 

• allow us to experience for ourselves, and demonstrate to our kids, His sustaining grace. 

Oh, the sweet relief I have found in knowing that my weaknesses point my children away from their flawed mom and straight to their flawless Savior. He’s the One I want their trust and hope set upon, not me. 

You don’t have to be ashamed of your weaknesses and need. Jesus loves to meet you and equip you and strengthen you and glorify Himself through you in that place, by His grace.  You are free.

This is a short excerpt from my new book "Mom Set Free" - click here for more information.