Some seasons of parenting feel like the wilderness. The same fights, the same mornings, years of showing up and no sign that anything is sinking in. You wonder if you are doing any good, and you wonder what you would even tell your children about God if they asked you tonight.
The Bible has an answer, and it does not require a polished testimony. It requires memory.
1. God brings people to a crossroads, and He brings them there with a record
In his message The Crossroads, Pastor Alan starts before the choice. In Deuteronomy 30:19 God sets life and death before Israel. But first, as the notes put it, God had brought them out of Egypt, sustained them in the wilderness, protected them for forty years, and provided food, water, and directions. The choice comes after the faithfulness.
That order matters for you. You are not standing at your own crossroads with nothing behind you. You have a record. God has carried your family through things you did not think you would survive.
2. Past faithfulness is a foundation
Pastor Alan says it this way: “God’s Past Faithfulness is a Foundation for Today’s Faith.” And again: “When you remember what God has done, it becomes easier to trust Him for what He is about to do.”
Take that into a hard week. Write down three things God has already done for your family. A job that came through. A child who came home. A bill that was somehow paid. Do not decorate them. Just write them down. You are building today’s trust out of yesterday’s evidence.
3. Tell it to your children
God told Israel to put this into words for the next generation. Deuteronomy 6:20-21 says, “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.'”
Look at what the parent says. It is not a lecture on doctrine. It is a story. We were stuck, and God brought us out. You can tell yours in a car ride. We did not have enough, and God gave us enough. I was scared the night you were born, and He was there. A child can argue with a lesson, but it is hard to argue with your own story told plainly.
4. Do not carry Egypt in your mind
Pastor Alan teaches a hard line in this message: “Israel left Egypt in one night, but Egypt remained in their minds for years.” He adds that “A Wrong Mindset can keep you Imprisoned even when God has Opened the door for you.”
Parents do this. The hard season ended, but you are still parenting as if it were happening. You still brace for the call that will not come. You still hold a child to who they were two years ago. Romans 8:6 says, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Set your mind on where God has brought you, not on where you were.
5. Faith sees what fear cannot
The notes give the example of David. “David saw a Giant. Everyone else saw Defeat. The Difference was not the Battlefield. The Difference was the Mindset.” And then the line to carry into the next argument over bedtime: “Faith sees what Fear Cannot see.”
Your child may not look finished to you. Faith can see them the way God does, a person He is still working on and has not left. That is not denial. It is trust.
This week
Pick one meal. Tell your family one thing God has brought you through, and keep it short. Then ask each person to name one thing they have seen God do. You may be surprised at what a child remembers.
If you want to sit with other people who are working this out, Today’s Victory Church meets Sundays at 3pm in White House, Tennessee, and Thursday Bible Study is at 6:30pm. Bring the kids and the hard week.
Scripture in this piece: Deuteronomy 30:19; Deuteronomy 6:20-21; Romans 8:6