Your heart is heavy with the weight of watching your little ones suffer, and your spirit cries out under a sense of failure. But it is in this very place of helplessness that the Lord delights to show His strength. You say you have cared for them with all your might, yet you cannot protect them still. This is not the confession of a failed mother, but the honest cry of one who has come to the end of all that nature can do, and so stands at the threshold of grace. When we have no might of our own, He increases strength. Cease, then, from this cruel self-accusation, and look away from yourself altogether. Your sufficiency is not in your nursing nor your tears, but in the living God who healeth all diseases and bindeth up the broken-hearted.
The sickness that passes from one dear child to another is a trial that wrings a mother’s soul, yet it is not sent without a loving design. The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, and the least things about Christ are full of medicinal virtue. Bring these children of yours under the branches of that tree; present them before the Great Physician by earnest, believing prayer. It is not the amount of medicine, nor the wisdom of doctors, that can stay the plague, but a word from Him who touched Peter’s wife’s mother and lifted her out of the fever. That same hand is stretched out still. Cry to Him, “Lord, come and lay hold upon my children, for they are sick and sore.” He is as willing today as when He walked among the multitudes, healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
You ask for guidance, wisdom, and strength. Then tarry much upon your knees in the secret place, for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. It is not the hurry of anxiety, but the quiet looking unto Jesus, that brings down the power from on high. Your own strength fails as certainly as a summer brook dries up; but strength in the Lord is an inexhaustible fountain. Do not pray merely to be made strong, but to receive Christ Himself as your life. While you are yet without strength, remember that Christ died for the ungodly, and that His healing touch often comes hand in hand with the sense of His pardoning love. First forgiveness, then healing. Lay your own soul low before the cross, and as you taste anew the sweetness of sins forgiven, you shall find that very peace becomes a cordial to your weary heart, and strength imparted to your weakness.
Concerning your children, let faith take hold of the promise that the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. The power to save is often most conspicuous when Christ is being taught, when the Word is preached or read in simplicity. Bring them under the sound of the gospel, read the Scriptures to them, sing to them of Jesus, and expect that the Lord will confirm His word with signs following. Do not let your present discouragement shut your mouth or seal your heart in unbelief. Many dear children are gathering in heaven who came there through the hearing of faith, and your little ones may yet be among that white-robed company.
You feel as though you have failed. Let this word sink into your soul: the glory of our strength lies not in our own resolve or carefulness, but in God alone. A mother’s natural love is a reflection of His tenderness, but when that love is driven to despair of itself and cast upon the Almighty, then it becomes a vessel ready for His power. The very weakness of your children, and your own prostration of spirit, are pleas to present before the throne. He knows the languid frame that cannot bear many medicines; He sees the young life struggling against disease. He took Jairus’s daughter by the hand, and the girl arose. He will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax.
Now, cease from fretting, and in holy quietness commit your household to the covenant-keeping God. He gives strength to minister, but that strength comes with the healing He works in our own souls first. As you rest beneath the shadow of the Almighty, you shall find your own heart renewed, and then you shall rise to serve your family with a calm and cheerful spirit that is God’s own gift. Take hold of Christ by a simple faith, not for great attainments, but for present, immediate deliverance. Say with the psalmist, “On Christ’s kind arms I fall; He is my strength and righteousness, my Jesus, and my all.” Then watch to see what He will do, for the healing balm of Calvary is still as fresh as when it first flowed, and the leaves of that blessed tree never wither. The Lord bless thy mind and thy emotions, and give thee to know that thou art no failure, but a beloved child in whom His strength shall be made perfect in weakness.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
