When you have young kids and it’s your full-time job to raise them, you are faced with a bajillion choices all day. What kind of fights are you going to stick with and what you’ll let go. What to feed them; what’s healthy and what’s not. Should I force the nap today or let her skip it and go to bed early? Sure, you can wear rain boots and your winter coat to swimming lessons.

But probably the most frequent and most complicated is when to rescue them and when to let them learn themselves. My kids are in the process of learning how to buckle and unbuckle their own seatbelts in their carseats. Most days, they can get it themselves. But then there are the meltdown days where nothing works and it’s all just too hard for them. So they wail and complain until all of the sudden – it clicks. Literally. And then they feel like rockstars because they got it done.

This is real life, people. Twenty four hours a day. It amazes me the amount of time it takes us to get in and out of the car.

There’s a very real, consistent choice with young kids to decide when to let them struggle and do it themselves and when to take over. Sometimes I take over because it’s been long enough and I can tell they need help. Sometimes I take over because I lose my patience and we are out of time, dangit.

But honestly – as an adult? I wondered why God wasn’t coming to rescue me for over a year. I knew what was true. I knew He was there and that He was faithful. But I felt like I was drowning in a sea of anxiety, anger and confusion.

It took the whole year and a half of a list of things too long to discuss here for me to see where God was. Absolutely right there in the middle of it, quietly cheering me on. Reminding me He had already rescued me. It was a once and for all deal, and in His kindness, He helped me work out why I was angry. If He had rescued me in a moment, I wouldn’t be changed today. My heart would be the same as it was then, and my body just in a new place.

Do you feel like you’ve been begging for a break? For a breakthrough? From God to rescue you from your circumstance? You’re so confused because you want to believe that God is capable of absolutely anything. But if He can… why isn’t He? I’ll never be able to answer that one for you. His ways are so much higher. He’s sovereign and just and there’s so much we will never understand. But as you wonder and doubt and reach for help, please be reminded today:

He’s a really, really good Dad. He’s not playing games. He’s not trying to make you prove something to Him. He knows exactly what to let you walk through and when to swoop in and pick you up.

He is more than present in your situation and in your life. He is in every moment in every day. He isn’t limited to Sunday mornings or the few times you open up your Bible. He doesn’t care if your words to Him sound put together.

So the big elephant in the room, though, is one question.

Are you letting Him in?

Because so much of the time, we talk about God. We talk about the things we’re going through and where God must be in it all. We wonder where He is and what He’s doing and we ask questions without really expecting an answer from the One who can give them.

Although God is ready and willing at any moment to pull us out and set us on a rock, He waits for us to ask. He wants to be invited into the conversation and into the mess, to prove Himself faithful as many times as we’ll let Him.

So if you’re wondering where God is, I’m going to challenge you to ask yourself if you’ve invited Him in. Do you trust Him to be your Protector and Savior? Or have you worked really hard to be your own savior?

And to those of us who have continually invited Him in, and we’re just still not sure what’s going on, take courage. He knows what you need right now. He knows the parts of Himself and of you that you are supposed to learn through this. You are not drowning and you are not abandoned.

He’s patient when we are impatient. He waits as we struggle to learn, knowing the crown of glory that waits for us on the other side.

“When I was at my weakest, my enemies attacked – but the Lord held on to me. His love broke open the way and He brought me into a beautiful place. He rescued me – because His delight is in me!” [Psalm 18:18-19 TPT]