The book When Moms Pray Together tells the story of a mother whose daughter suffered from bulimia. Thinking herself fat and ugly, Becky would binge and purge. She began cutting herself in high school, once so deeply that she had to be hospitalized. After months of intensive therapy, her emotional pain started to ease. Finally, after attending a retreat, she experienced the reality of God’s love for her. After that she was able to share her story publicly in the hope of keeping others from heading down the same dark path.
Here’s what her mother had to say about what it was like to deal with Becky’s struggles:
“Although I can rejoice now, I didn’t know how this story would turn out. . . . At times in my frustration and impatience with her slow progress, I tried to take charge of her spiritual life. It was then that Becky clearly told me that this was her spiritual life and that I couldn’t live it for her. . . .One of the verses that I clung to during this painful period was Jeremiah 29:11. . . . I clung to the words hope and future. And when fear and worry began to cloud my mind, I remembered what God had done for us in the past. . . . I took my focus off my circumstances and redirected it to Him who is my hope and future. Then I would pray the same verse for Becky, asking that she would believe that God had plans for her—good plans, not necessarily easy ones, but plans to give her a bright future and hope.”1
What fears do you have for your loved ones and your children? Ask God to redirect your eyes to him rather than to their circumstances. Remember what he has already done for you. Then pray with renewed hope and confidence that God will be at work, making his plans for them come true.
- Fern Nichols, When Moms Pray Together (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009), 40–41.
