Parenting can be exhausting on the best of days, but when you’re a single mom, the common endeavors involved in raising kids may weigh a little heavier than they’re meant to.
Here are 9 scripture-based practices for the solo mom that will not only build you up as a parent, but ultimately strengthen your relationship with the Lord.
9 Scriptural Survival Tips for the Single Mother
1. Prayer
Philippians 4:6 guides us to tackle all of our issues and intentions with “prayer and supplication,” to “let your requests be made known to God.”
It is first on the list here and the most transformative, not because every prayer will be answered in the way you’d prefer, but because prayer is an acting out of faith. It’s a mental and verbal affirmation of Christ’s Lordship, who instructed us in Matthew 6 exactly how to pray: that the Father’s will be done in our lives, by His perfect standard, not our own. Pray in the car, at church, definitely over the food that nourishes you, and certainly over people who may have it harder in this moment than you do, and they definitely aren’t hard to find or materialize in the heart. Taking the focus off yourself in prayer also helps to humble us and assists in renewed gratefulness.
2. Praise
Do you have breath in your body today? Humanity requires oxygen for life, and Psalm 150:6 instructs: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”
God didn’t give us this breath so we could just get by until the grave. We are made to praise Him. In your darkest moments, when the world is stacked against your circumstances, praise Him, even when things aren’t necessarily perfect. The word “praise” is a verb, meaning to “express a favorable judgment of, to commend.” Through prayer, art, song, dance, friendship, giving an extra moment of your time, sharing the Gospel with a neighbor or a stranger, you are expressing, in action, your favor of God’s perfect will upon your life.
3. Obedience
This is so important for all believers, but especially for the single mother whose children may have been born from the act of fornication. This is not a condemnation upon you, dear reader, but rather a holy opportunity. If you were unwed when your children were conceived, do not stray back into the lifestyle that got you here. If you’re now divorced, do not hastily remarry, especially to erase some societal judgement against you, your kids, or your situation. God alone is your Judge and Maker, so we look to the Ten Commandments, and to Christ’s words in John 14:23: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Whoever comes into your future, make sure that they love the Lord as dearly as you do.
4. Repentance
This one cannot be stressed enough: repent! Of the big stuff and the small. If you became impatient with your kids today and did some less than productive parenting, make it up to them by meditating on what you can do to change your ways for them in the future. If you offended your parents or a member of your family, apologize. If you became angry in your heart, maybe at someone in traffic, even without any earthly witnesses, remember there is always One who sees you. When we repent, we are turning from one direction and going in a different one. Such an action has profound effects, because it reinforces our faith in His holiness, His commandments, and the fact that His guidance for us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 are true and sure promises: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
