08/13/2026
My eyes popped open, and I shot straight up in bed. My heart is racing, and I'm struggling to catch my breath. This wasn’t the first night, and it sure wouldn’t be the last. I’d start to drift off to sleep, and it would happen all over again. I’d love to tell you it was a nightmare, and while the entire experience definitely felt like one, it wasn’t.
Until this particular point in my life, I’d never experienced anything like it. And frankly, it took me a while to realize anxiety defined my struggle.
Around this time, we were walking through some things as a family! We had a wayward child and were in the thick of battling darkness for our child. That’s when all of this began. But to be clear, these episodes weren’t my child’s fault; they were my fault. I’m keenly aware of this. It took some time, but I finally concluded that what doctors and the world called anxiety, I would soon understand to be a spiritual attack. Anxiety was just the outcome of an inward attack on my trust in Jesus.
This morning I was reading in Exodus about the life of Moses and his mother. And it took me back to my struggle. It was a story I couldn’t ignore, and my prayer is that it can be a story of hope for you as a parent.
Bear with me, the scriptures are important, so I want to get to them all. But a little backstory.—Joseph had died, and Egypt had a new pharaoh who didn’t know of Joseph, and he feared the Hebrew people were too great in number and could overtake the Egyptians, so he ordered the murders of every male child born to a Hebrew. Heartbreaking stuff! But oddly familiar to the times we’re living in!
Exodus 2:2— The (Hebrew) woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.
Pause… she saw that he was beautiful—often translated as 'good'! Are you catching this? Genesis 1, anybody? God saw that his creation was very good. Can I pause here and say—Momma, Daddy, that child you created is good, very good! Their life is worth saving and sacrificing for!
And I want to gently say to someone that’s reading this and struggling with this decision…Abortion is not the answer. It isn’t even an answer. If you’ll let me, I’d love to show you how honoring God with this decision you may be struggling with can have a great impact on you, your family, and the world around you.
Verse 3-6 But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. Then his sister stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him. Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”
God has a way of intervening and even interrupting lives for his children. And to the parents who are struggling with the decision to keep the baby, there is someone right now searching for a child. There is another way. God has already prepared their hearts to receive what you can offer, and He’s already given your child purpose.
Verse 7-9 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?” “Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.
To the parent who is wrestling like I was—What the enemy tried to steal from you, God will return to you! Your wayward child is not too far gone for God! Nothing is impossible for Him! He is capable of redeeming any situation for His glory and your good! Don’t stop praying for your baby. It doesn’t matter if they are 12, 27, or 57! God is faithful. You be faithful to. What trust Moses’ mother must have had in God to put her sweet child in a river. That wasn’t ignorance. That was faithfulness! She, like most of us, would move heaven and earth to save our children! What more do you think our Heavenly Father will do to bring one of his children home? Scripture tells us he leaves the ninety-nine to pursue even one lost sheep! Praise God, He did it for us! And praise God, he’ll do it for our children! We only need to trust!
Verse 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 2:2–10, CSB)
Moses means to draw out. And that’s exactly what he will go on to do as scripture reveals how he led his people out of slavery from Egypt. God put him in a place and time to save a nation. But none of that would have been possible without the trust and faithfulness of his mother!
Momma, I know your heart is broken, you feel hopeless and empty watching your prodigal's life unfold. And to you, sweet girl who sees no other way out, “you have no life,” you think, how can you bring another one into the world? But the truth is, there’s a man who has a way and a plan, and it’s beyond our comprehension. And there’s an enemy whose sole purpose is to convince us God can’t be trusted. The attacks will come, but when we put our trust in our Heavenly Father, the enemy has no ground. The anxiety, the worry, the shame, the doubt, it all stops. Not because things are instantly perfect, but because He alone keeps us in perfect peace while we trust Him.
We have to hold our children with open hands, whether born or unborn. When we hold them too tightly, we can be the reason they don’t flourish in the things God has planned for them! More than anything, I wish I could protect my children from the world. But I couldn’t, and I can’t. My job is to steward the gifts of God that they are. Pointing them to Jesus in word and deed. God works out the rest!
I had to come to a place where I gave my child, all of my children at one point or another, completely to God. Is it easy? Nope! But it’s necessary for their flourishing and for mine! And flourishing we are! Not because we’re perfect, but because we are in the Father's hands, living for Him, glorifying Him! I didn’t have to rescue my child; I just needed to put them into the right hands, and God rescued them.
You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you. (Isaiah 26:3, CSB)
Looking for more content like this? Join my email list! 🔗 linktr.ee/cassiedowns
