CHAPTER 3

God Can Handle It

On May 20, 2013, fourth grade teacher Nikki McCurtin gathered a frightened group of students around her and began to read. She doubted they would be able to pay attention. As much as they loved hearing the stories about Aslan, the Lion, from C. S. Lewis’s book The Magician’s Nephew the massive cloud looming on the horizon had the school children on edge.

Most of the students in Nikki’s class were already gone. Their parents had picked them up early, anxious to get them home before the storm hit. Only seven of her 27 students were left, their earnest faces upturned toward her as they sat cross-legged on the floor, waiting for her to resume the story. Nikki smiled at them and swallowed hard to clear the emotion from her voice. “Chapter 9,” she said.

The Lion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song. It was softer and more lilting than the song by which he had called up the stars and the sun; a gentle, rippling music. As he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass. It spread out from the Lion like a pool…

The students hung on every word. Tuning out the thunder rumbling outside, they tuned in to the Lion who sang in the darkness and created life with his voice. Nikki felt the Holy Spirit hovering in the room. She knew the children were too young to realize that the Lion in the story represented God and the empty land the work of the devil, so she paused and explained how life always springs out of darkness and, in the end, good always conquers evil.

As if on cue, the intercom clicked on. The principal’s voice echoed through the classrooms and the halls. “Take tornado precautions now!”

Within minutes, Nikki, along with the other teachers in her wing of the school, had shepherded the students into the bathroom for maximum protection. The lights flickered overhead. The children Nikki had fallen in love with this past school year whimpered in terror around her. Then her cell phone rang. It was her husband, Preston. He’d been watching the tornado on TV. “It’s coming! It’s going to hit you!” he said. Before she could reply the phone went dead.

The tornado roared in like a freight train. The floor vibrated and the walls shook. The whimpers of the children turned to wails. “God, give me one verse to pray for them!” Nikki screamed.

His answer was instant. Psalm 91:4: He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart (NIV).

Praying the verse repeatedly at the top of her lungs, Nikki wrapped herself around a little girl like a human shield. She turned her back to the door and braced herself against the fingers of wind that grabbed her, pulling her toward the vortex of the storm. As they threatened to sweep her away, Nikki suddenly felt a stronger Hand pressing against her back with gentle power, holding her in place.

She turned around to see who it was but no one was there. Then she heard God’s voice in her heart telling her that she would be okay, that as terrible as the storm might be, He could handle it.

Cinder blocks crumbled and crashed down around her. The roof ripped away overhead and the vacuum created by the twister sucked the air from Nikki’s lungs. Gasping for breath she stood up and whirled around to see the tornado right in front of her, a dark swirling monster of dirt and debris.

And then it was gone. Not just the tornado, but everything else too—Paradise Towers Elementary School, and mile after mile of Moore, Oklahoma. Nikki gasped at the devastation and remembered the scenes the Lord had flashed across her mind a couple of days earlier. They’d looked just like this—like a war zone. Nikki had known it was a warning and she and her husband had heeded it and prayed.

Now she knelt among her students, still huddled together amid the rubble. Some were bruised and bleeding but none were critically hurt. Tending to their wounds, she shushed their sobs. “You’re alive,” she said. “You’re alive. It’s going to be all right.”

Never Alone

As mothers, most of us have never faced what Nikki McCurtin did. We’ve never had to pray our way through an F5 tornado, and we hopefully will never have to. But I wanted to tell you her story anyway because in some way we can all relate to it.

We all know what it’s like to be hit by a storm. To have winds of trouble roar through our lives and rock our world. Sometimes those winds rattle marriages or threaten finances. Other times they bring sickness, disappointment, or emotional pain. But no matter what kind of storms we face, as moms we all want the same thing that Nikki did: To shelter the little ones we love from the turbulence around them and make sure they come through all right.

That isn’t easy, even when all we’re facing in life is a few scattered showers. But when the really difficult times come, it can seem all but impossible. And this is the simple truth: Difficult times always come. Jesus told us they would. He said in John 16:33 that as long as we live in this world, we will experience trouble, trials, and distresses. And in these days, mothers especially can verify it’s true.

According to statistics, many moms in the United States who grew up watching old re-runs of Leave It to Beaver and dreaming of a life like June Cleaver’s are being blindsided by an entirely different reality. In the past 50 years, divorce rates have doubled. The percentage of families where the woman is the head of the household has risen by a staggering 47 percent. Fewer moms than ever have the option of staying at home with their kids and fewer households earn a comfortable living.

In this day and age, family life is more complicated.

• 61 percent of mothers work outside of the home.

• 86 percent of those mothers say they sometimes or frequently feel stressed.

• 48 percent of all first marriages in America end in divorce.

• 19 million children are being raised by single mothers.

• 51 percent of those children are living below the poverty line.

• 43 percent of marriages are second or third marriages.

• 68 percent of those re-marriages involve children from prior marriages.

• 2,100 new blended families are being formed every day.

• 82 percent of new blended family parents say they don’t know where to turn for help for the problems they’re facing.¹

Clearly, times have changed. This isn’t June Cleaver’s world anymore.

Maybe you already know this from experience. Maybe you’ve been touched by these statistics in a very personal way and the blissful experience of motherhood you once imagined has taken a less-than-blissful turn. If so, here’s a word of encouragement for you: You are not alone.

Not only are there millions of other mothers in the same boat with you, but as I reminded you in the last chapter, Jesus is in your boat too, and He said:

… I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!].

Hebrews 13:5

You might think, But I sometimes feel so alone! I pray and ask for God’s help, but I don’t feel like He’s with me—or even in the neighborhood!

If that’s the case, let me encourage you to stop listening to your feelings because they’re telling you a lie. Jesus promised to be with you and He is. His very name, Immanuel, means God with us.

His very name, Immanuel, means God with us.

And some of the last words He said to us before He ascended to heaven were these:

“… I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:20 NKJV

That promise that He will be with us “always” means He will be with us as we raise difficult children. He’ll be with us if we have to deal with absentee husbands or critical in-laws. He’ll be with us as we spend sleepless nights comforting colicky babies or waiting up for wayward teenagers. He’ll be with us as we face mountains of laundry, clock in at challenging jobs, and endeavor to bring beauty out of broken situations.

That means you don’t have to panic if you’re facing some overwhelming storm of trouble. You don’t have to wring your hands and say, “I just can’t handle this!” Instead you can follow the example of Nikki McCurtin. You can ask God for a Scripture to pray and lean back on Jesus.

He has all power in heaven and earth. He is with you. And He CAN handle it!

Finding Help in the Wilderness

Sometimes the trouble that we face is trouble of our own making. It is in these difficult times that we wonder if God will still help us, strengthen us, and be with us. If you are facing such a situation today, I want to encourage you to know God has not given up on you. He is with you and He will give you the strength to overcome any obstacle—even if that obstacle was one of your own making.

If you doubt it, check out the story of the young woman named Hagar in the Old Testament. Hagar was a servant in Abraham’s household. She was also the woman who got nominated as “surrogate mom” when Sarah decided Abraham should make a baby by sleeping with someone younger and more fertile than herself.

As a servant, Hagar probably wasn’t given much choice in the matter. That’s just the way things were done back then. But once she got pregnant with Abraham’s child, she did get to choose how she was going to respond to the situation. And she chose poorly. She made an already-bad situation even worse by acting snooty toward Sarah and treating her with contempt.

To put it mildly, Sarah didn’t respond well. In fact, she got downright mad. Determined to take Hagar down a few notches, Sarah harassed and humiliated her at every opportunity. So Hagar ran away… to the only place you can run when you live in a tent-city in the Middle East.

The wilderness.

For a young pregnant woman, alone and without provisions, the wilderness is a tough place to live. It’s dangerous too. Hagar might well have died out there. But she didn’t because God in His great mercy met her there and told her what to do.

Go back to your mistress and [humbly] submit to her control… I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be numbered for multitude… See now, you are with child and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael [God hears], because the Lord has heard and paid attention to your affliction… So she called the name of the Lord Who spoke to her, You are a God… Who sees me.…

Genesis 16:9-13

The God who sees me. That’s a wonderful name for the Lord! And it was first spoken by a mother caught in a heart-wrenching situation. A mother who had fallen prey to bad attitudes and ungodly behavior, just as we all do from time to time.

Hagar’s trouble was partly Abraham and Sarah’s fault, and partly her own. God Himself deserved none of the blame. But He intervened anyway, poured out His kindness on her, and promised her and her child a fruitful future.

If God would do that for Hagar in Old Testament times, can’t we as New Testament mothers be even more certain that God will see and care for us when we find ourselves in the wilderness? Can’t we draw near to Him with confidence to receive mercy and grace to help in our time of need, even if our need is a result of our own bad judgment or behavior?

Yes! Absolutely, we can!

But when we do, we should remember that God won’t always instantly deliver us out of every troublesome situation. He won’t always make our difficulties go POOF! and disappear. Just as He sent Hagar back to put up with Sarah for a season, God will often require us to work through our problems over time with His help. And when we tell Him we can’t do it, He’ll say to us what He said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9: My grace… is enough for you.

“Lord, my child’s strong-willed personality is too much to handle! It’s driving me crazy!”

My grace is enough for you.

“Lord, I know we need the income but I can’t stand to work this job another day!”

My grace is enough for you.

“Lord, it’s hard being a single parent. I’m too weary to go on!”

My grace is enough for you.

Exactly What Is God’s Grace?

Grace is God’s power that enables us to do with ease what we could never do on our own.

Grace is God’s power that enables us to do with ease what we could never do on our own. It’s His divine favor poured out in our lives supplying us with everything we need. With the help of God’s grace, you and I can accomplish things that would have been impossible for us to do on our own, no matter how hard we struggled and tried.

And because God dispenses grace to us in abundance according to our need, grace is the great equalizer! The more problems and weaknesses you have, the more grace you get!

“But you don’t know my situation,” you might say. “You’ve never had to deal with the kinds of things I do.”

I’m sure that’s true. We all have our own race to run and our own storms to conquer. When God called me into ministry, I had three teenagers at home and a baby that I often carried on my hip while trying to do God’s will. I had to deal with a father who’d sexually abused me for years as a child and still refused to acknowledge he was wrong, and a mother who was in complete denial. I was dealing with friends and family who had completely rejected me because I was teaching God’s Word and in their opinion, “Women can’t do that!” I also had a variety of minor health issues due to the stress I had been under for a long period of time.

What’s more, while I was traveling and teaching the Word and trying to be a good mother, wife, and homemaker all at the same time, my husband wasn’t acting the way I thought he should. He insisted on using his free time to play golf or watch football on television instead of catering to me. I tried everything I knew to change him. I pouted. I argued. I manipulated. I even begged God to convict him! But God didn’t do it my way. Apparently He wanted me to focus on my own walk with Him and not Dave’s. So instead of making Dave do what I wanted him to do, God gave me extra grace to let Him change me and to trust Him with everything and everyone else. I would love to say that it happened dramatically and quickly, but honestly, it took a lot longer than I wanted it to; however, God ultimately used the things that were difficult for me to handle so He could change me and bring me into a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him.

That’s my story. Yours may be very different. The challenges we face are all unique and very different. But even so, you can count on this: God will give you more than enough grace to handle them. If you’re a single mom, raising several children on your own and working full-time to pay the bills, God will fill you to the brim with grace enough to do it all with joy and peace. If you’re a stay-at-home mom and you’re feeling cut off from the world and unfruitful in God’s kingdom, He’ll do the same, supplying you with His grace in your time of need. God promises to give each of us…

• More and more grace (see James 4:6).

• … One grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift (John 1:16).

• A surpassing measure of God’s grace (see 2 Corinthians 9:14).

I saw an example of this in the life of my daughter, Sandra. After her twins were born, the Lord led her to give up working in our ministry and stay home full-time. She knew it was the right decision at the time and, like all moms with young toddlers, she stayed very busy. But even so, she still yearned to reach out to others with the Word of God. So she asked God for extra grace. She prayed each day with her two-year-old daughters that He would make them a light everywhere they went.

Sure enough, He did it! God gave Sandra inspired ideas and the boldness to act on them. One time, for instance, she decided to encourage and appreciate the garbage man. She wrote him a thank-you note and enclosed $50. She told him to treat himself to a nice lunch and gave him one of my books. Another time, she was driving down the street and noticed some bikers gathered in a parking lot. At the prompting of the Lord, she pulled over, talked to them, and gave them a set of my teaching CDs.

Open a Can of Miracles

Some of you may know more about God’s grace than I did as a young mom. The first few years I tried to live for God, I didn’t have a clue about it. I knew I’d been saved by grace through faith, but I thought that once I was born again, I had to do everything in my own strength. I felt like God threw me the football and expected me to make the touchdown. Oh, what agony that was!

The more I studied the Word, the more I saw all the things that were wrong with me, but I couldn’t seem to find the power to change them. I’d hear a good sermon about how I should live and what I needed to do. I’d agree with it, try to act on it, and fall flat on my face. I’d read a good Christian book, see where I was falling short, and then go right out and fall short again. All this trying and failing only made me more frustrated than I already was, and it often caused me to be grouchy with my children.

But, thankfully, with the help of the Lord, I finally began to learn how to receive God’s grace. I stopped struggling in the flesh, started acknowledging my utter dependence on God, and trusted Him to do through me the things I cannot do on my own.

Somebody once said, “Miracles come in cans,” and I agree. Miracles started happening to me when I stopped saying things like, “I can’t take this anymore!” and started confessing by faith, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Without Him I am nothing, but with Him I can do whatever He calls me to do. Nothing is impossible for Him. He can do anything and His power is in me!”

I still say those things—several times a day—most every day. It helps me worship God and activate the overcoming power of His grace in my life. It will do the same for you. So if you aren’t already doing it, get started. Get into the habit of trusting God and singing His praises all the time. Start saying, “I can do whatever I need to do in life through Christ who is my Strength.”

Practice believing His Word and depending on His power even during the sunny days of life. If you’ll learn to do this, you’ll be ready when the winds of trouble blow and you won’t have to panic. You’ll know that because of the grace of God, light always overcomes darkness, and good always overcomes evil in the lives of those who trust the Lord. You’ll be able to shelter your little ones with your shield of faith and say, “Everything is going to be okay. You don’t have to worry about the storm. The Lion of Judah is right here with us… and He can handle it.”