The little years of parenting are a wonderful and sometimes unbearable wilderness.
Nighttime can be a series of uncivil wars â getting children fed and bathed (and sometimes re-bathed), then getting them into the right bed, at the right time, with the right bedtime story or song (only after finding that beloved stuffie), then keeping them in that bed until they fall asleep (and repeating all of the above when one wakes up at 1:00 or 2:00 or 3:00), and then frantically getting as much sleep as you can before the artillery and bloodshed begin again. Whatâs one of the first questions any of us thinks to ask a parent of babies or toddlers? How are you sleeping? Answers range from âPretty wellâ to âWhat is sleep again?â The nights can be the hardest.
âJesus can fully sympathize with weakness, with exhaustion, with spiritual warfare.â
And once theyâre awake, a new series of predictable but unstoppable ambushes begins. While youâre feeding the baby his breakfast, the two-year-old decides to moisturize her face and arms and clothes with yogurt. While youâre still removing dairy from her hair, your four-year-old loudly announces heâs finished going potty and needs help. While youâre wiping another behind, your two-year-old now decides to remove all the clothes from her dresser. And while youâre refolding a dozen 2Ts, the baby starts screaming because heâs hungry. The days can be the hardest.
The wilderness â primitive, untamed, filled with life, fiercely beautiful â is a fitting picture for these little years with children.
Jesus Braved the Wilderness
As my wife and I wander through these years, I have taken some serious comfort from knowing that Jesus is acquainted with desolate places. âThen Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devilâ (Matthew 4:1). Our Savior didnât save us from a safe and heavenly distance, but stepped into the darkest, scariest corners of our fallen world and faced temptation head-on. He fully sympathizes with weakness, with exhaustion, with spiritual warfare.
While he was in the wilderness, he was tempted by Satan. Unlike Adam and Moses and David and me, Jesus never bit. You can imagine the devil growing increasingly disturbed, desperate, enraged. All the lies that had so easily felled millions before â giants and kings, mothers and soldiers, rich and poor, young and old, prostitutes and Pharisees â now fell flat and soft, like blazing arrows in an ocean.
By the time weâre brought into the skirmish, the forty days have ended, and the devil reaches back for three last frantic shots. He held these three for just this moment, when Jesus was his weakest. And while Jesus was not a father or mother, tired and stressed parents will recognize these lies all too well.
Lie 1: âYou donât have what you need.â
When Satan feels his forty-day war with Jesus coming to an end and his feeble chances of victory slipping away, where does he strike? Where do his malicious eyes see vulnerability?
After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, âIf you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.â (Matthew 4:2â3)
Where does the devil take aim first? At the stomach. And why wouldnât he, since itâs worked from the beginning? âDid God actually say, âYou shall not eat of any tree in the gardenâ?â (Genesis 3:1). You donât have to be hungry anymore, he whispers. I can give you what you really need. I will give you more than God will. You trusted him, and look where thatâs gotten you.
Donât parents hear the same whispers? We may not face physical hunger (although moms are known to go without meals). But parenting young children will consistently demand more than you think you have to give â physically, yes, but also emotionally and spiritually. You will sometimes lie down at night sincerely convinced you wonât have enough for another day. Parenting can make tomorrow feel like both an inevitability and an impossibility. You might begin to wish you could turn some stones into bread (or at least some dirty clothes into clean laundry).
We know Adam and Eve caved and took the bite, but how did Jesus respond? What did his moments of intense hunger sound like? He answered Satan, âIt is written, âMan shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of Godââ (Matthew 4:4). Notice, he doesnât say, âI donât need bread.â He was every bit as human as any stay-at-home mom. But he knew he needed something more than he needed the next meal. He knew his physical and emotional needs were mere shadows of what he needed and had in God.
So, let your needs in the wilderness of parenting â for food, for sleep, for adult conversation, for getting other things done around the house â remind you that you need one thing more than you need anything else. And if you have that â fellowship with an almighty, all-satisfying God in his word â he can sustain you for another long day with kids.
Lie 2: âGod wonât come through for you.â
When he couldnât get him to reach for the cupboard, the devil applied vicious pressure to the promises holding Jesus up in the wilderness.
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, âIf you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, âHe will command his angels concerning you,â and âOn their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.ââ (Matthew 4:5â6)
Whatâs the sinister whisper beneath this temptation? Sure, God got you through this, but you havenât been in any real danger. Think about tomorrow. Deep down, you know he wonât come through for you then. Itâs wickedly cunning, and on two levels. First, he belittles what God has done thus far (he just sustained Jesus alone in the wilderness for forty days without food). Second, he concocts imaginary circumstances to arouse unwarranted suspicion (âBut what if you threw yourself off of the temple?â).
âParenting can make tomorrow feel like both an inevitability and an impossibility.â
Even though it failed on Jesus, the devil fabricates the same illusions in our wilderness. He throws shadows over the stunning examples of Godâs mercy and care for us, and then turns spotlights onto every conceivable fear about the future. He knows how to make the next 24 hours feel larger and heavier than years, or even decades, of Godâs persistent faithfulness. And he knows parents of young children are more vulnerable than most, because the days are so long and unyielding.
As he stands on the temple and looks down, what makes Jesus feel as secure as ever? How does he beat back the siren songs of doubt? He says to Satan, âAgain it is written, âYou shall not put the Lord your God to the testââ (Matthew 4:7). Notice, Jesus doesnât reach for a promise this time, but for a command. Promises arenât our only weapons against temptation. Because he loves us and because he knows how Satan attacks, our heavenly Father also gives us warnings to heed and rules to follow. Jesus knew how Israel had tested God in their wilderness, with grumbling and disobedience (Exodus 17:7), and he knew how that test ended. He wasnât going to befriend doubt. Even under intense pressure and pain, he trusted Godâs good laws.
What commands might help keep you through the wilderness of parenting? âPut on then, as Godâs chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patienceâ (Colossians 3:12). âFathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lordâ (Ephesians 6:4). âDo not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own troubleâ (Matthew 6:34). Can you, like Jesus, recite them when you need them?
Lie 3: âAll of this can be yours.â
When Jesus wouldnât bite on the first two lies, Satan tried to prey on a different kind of hunger.
The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, âAll these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.â (Matthew 4:8â9)
If he couldnât lure Jesus away through the pain of need, then he would bait his hook with worldly pleasure. He would hold out what so many fallen people crave: power, authority, glory. He appeals to a pervasive human longing to be seen, admired, and followed. Hearing him talk, itâs hard not to think of social media as a massive, global version of this insidious temptation. They will all look to you. All the eyes will be yours.
He whispers something similar to parents (and perhaps especially to mothers in our day). Look how much youâre giving up. Think about the opportunities waiting out there. No one even notices all you do. All good parents forfeit something of what Satan was offering that day. We invest an extraordinary amount of time, attention, and money, during our strongest and most energetic years, to change diapers and make snacks, to practice letters and reread simple books, to play catch and wipe tears. And Satan knows how to make all of that seem so, so, so small (and just about anything else seem so, so, so great).
So, how does Jesus see through the deception? He responds, âBe gone, Satan!â â we need that kind of aggression for the everyday spiritual battles of parenting â âFor it is written, âYou shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serveââ (Matthew 4:10). He reaches for another command, and (as with all of Godâs commands) thereâs a compelling reality wrapped inside. Jesus (even Jesus!) refused to seize glory, not only because the law said not to, but because he knew that the law was a script for his greatest possible joy.
Godâs commands arenât arbitrary or irrelevant to our hungers. One by one, they pave a pathway to the feast. The most satisfying lives are firmly anchored in and pointed at the glory of God. To focus on self, as a Savior or a parent, would be to forfeit everything. Jesus warns us later, âWhoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?â (Matthew 16:25â26). Whoever loses his life for my sake â Christian parenting often feels like that kind of sacrifice, and it should. That is, if we want to find and experience life.
Whether youâre in a wilderness now or see one coming in the distance, arm yourself against temptation. Commit the words you need to memory, so that you can hear them even when you donât have the strength or quiet to read them. Get as close as you can to the Son who has gone before you, and prevailed for you, and now walks with you. And then trust him for what you and your kids need tomorrow.
