Surrendering to God is a common theme in the Bible. We have preached it, testified it, and lived it. We have made the whole process an incredibly personal one—not just words we’ve read somewhere. “Your whole spirit, body, a living sacrifice.” If you believe in holiness, then you have walked down this path.

Not only have I had to surrender to things concerning myself, I have had to surrender to things dealing with my children. I’m a mom, and it’s amazing how much we moms care. We care if our children have friends at school. We care if they are lonely. There are things that we might even be willing to go through, but when our children go through them, we want to rescue them. We care if they lie in the dark next to us and tell us the ways they feel rejected by their peers…even if in our heads we understand at times the things they might be doing to bring it on themselves. And we definitely feel it when it seems their feelings of isolation are totally uncalled for. I like to think that this pain is mirrored in the heart of the Father. Even the times that my problems might have been my fault, it is STILL in the heart of the One who understands every tear!

But the heart of God goes way beyond whether I (or my child) had a good day at school or not. It is so much bigger than this! God says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)

I didn’t realize that I needed to surrender my children also. That they were part of the things to die out to. I did so many things for their happiness. I’ve coordinated trips to museums, gifts for special occasions, special food that I knew they would enjoy, and so much more! And yet the inevitable happened. Inevitable because it happens to all of us. Some of my children would go through times of isolation. Times when they were lonely and felt unpopular. Times of rejection. And I found that it didn’t just hurt them. It hurt me.

I found that submitting the pain and desires you have for your children brings peace just like it does for yourself. I found that victory comes when you turn it to God! During a lonely time with one of my children, I started telling God, “Okay, you don’t have to make my children popular, just make us holy! It’s all right. We don’t have to be happy, just make us holy!”

And God took me at my word and started doing a work in that child’s heart—a work that went way down deeper than I had any idea of at the time! I’m so glad that I didn’t stand in the way from what God was wanting to do all along. Oh God, do whatever you need to do, just make us holy!