A mom never stops being a mom, no matter how old her children. Nevertheless, I may be one of the oldest moms still raising a child. Our daughter went to live with Jesus four years ago and my husband and I took on responsibilities for rearing her two children. Our grandson is now 20 years old and living on his own. Our granddaughter is 14, a freshman in high school, and is still with us.
I have always been a planner – a goal setter. When I married my husband, I had already planned what my life would look like. Of course, everything was going to be perfect, but God had another idea. Planning and setting goals is wise; however, leaving God out of the equation is a mistake. He knows the future and we do not. I have learned that God’s thoughts are forever higher than mine…
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9.
God blessed our marriage with happiness, a home in the country, and a delightful son. Nevertheless, my first unmet goal occurred when I was unable to have a second child. (My infertility lasted 12 years, when we had another natural-born son.) A womb shut up by God, resulted in the adoption of our beautiful three-week-old baby girl in 1969. We named her Tammy and, for the first two years, our lives were picture perfect.
As our baby girl grew into toddlerhood, I observed that she often displayed an unexplainable moodiness. With each passing day, she became more irritable and our home became chaotic. By the time she entered kindergarten, I had read all the books on child development and child behavior in the local public library and two university libraries. To obtain further advice on what could possibly be wrong, I consulted every professional I could find. There were no answers. I could not fix whatever was happening to my child and, apparently, no one else could either.
One evening, when our daughter was six years old and dreadfully ill, I sat in a pew at my church in utter despair; my spirit was broken, my plans demolished. Nonetheless, God had a better plan – one that I did not fully understand at first! That night I surrendered my life and all my plans and dreams to Him.
My trials did not stop – they intensified, but God was now at the helm of the ship instead of me. It took another eleven years for our daughter to receive the diagnosis of bipolar disorder and the treatment for it. My book, God Placed Her in My Path – Lessons Learned from the Furnace of Bipolar Disorder, is the heart-gripping story of my journey through those troubled years.
This book is about God’s marvelous grace, imparted to me, in difficult times. God repeatedly reassured me with this verse…
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. II Corinthians 12:9.
So now, I am a “grandma-mom.” My 14-year-old granddaughter teaches me every day that God’s grace is sufficient. I jokingly tell my friends that I am mothering again because I did not learn all my lessons the first time around. However, I am fully aware that this is one more divine opportunity, one more gift from God to discover His plan for my life.
God has the best plan for you and for me – one we could never envision or accomplish on our own.
Register to win a free PDF copy of thirty devotionals from the book, God Placed Her in My Path – Lessons Learned from the Furnace of Bipolar Disorder, by going to www.dorothyruppert.com/contact-dorothy Type in your name, email address, in the message space type “enter me in the drawing,” and email it back to me. All entries must be submitted on or before 12:00 a.m. CST, April 15, 2013. Two winners will be randomly drawn from the names submitted.
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God Placed Her in My Path by Dorothy Ruppert 