It’s not what it looks like. How many of us have had bad situations happen in our lives and others judged us without knowing the whole story? I can relate to the story of Mephibosheth. His nurse decided in fear to pick him up and started to run to protect him and instead ended up injuring him. There are so many parents and even single parents that can relate to this story. Children do not come with a manual. Most of us are trying to do the best we can with the resources and mental and emotional damage we are carrying while also carrying and trying to protect our children. A real parent wants better than what they had growing up, even if it was good. There is always better but sometimes good can be the enemy to better.
His nurse didn’t just sit there because they had it good and didn’t assume they would be okay. No, she started running because she wanted better, and didn’t want that to be his end like his father and grandfather’s unexpected death as well. However, she ended up being the one to hurt him the most. There I was a single mother that had been through a difficult marriage and divorce. Then just three years after our divorce, their father, my ex-husband at 38 years old died. Just like Jonathan’s unexpected death in the battle that day, I was left carrying the weight of our young two sons and I was on the run. I was running from fear, abuse, and destruction, just like she was. Praying that I would be able to protect my sons from the aftermath of the war we had just come out of.
So many women have lost their spouses, their children’s fathers voluntarily or involuntary and our children have been left crippled and lamed. These situations have placed many of our children in situations that have compromised them physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and even financially. There are thousands of children in the foster care system because of being dropped like Mephibosheth. However, every child that enters the foster care systems story is not because the child was being abused, it might be like my situation because while I was trying to protect mine, the weight became so great: he was dropped. This was heartbreaking to me, but we could no longer coexist together.
In my situation and many others, it’s not what it looks like. This means there is much more to it than what you are seeing or may know. Things got bad. I had a young son before I got married and when my ex-husband left me and we divorced, before this happened, I would constantly let him know I was not taking the boys with me. I was struggling because now I had three young sons to raise alone. My weight was great. All hell broke out in my home as soon as he closed his eyes. My second, his oldest, was being a bad example to his brother. So, it wasn’t just one of them, it was two of them at the same time. It began to affect my youngest son the most mentally.
The more I tried to protect and get him help, which was documented for two years during this time, it just got worse. I couldn’t take it anymore. I exhausted all my resources and when things became physical from my youngest son after multiple encounters, I realized things had to change. I had to let go because he would no longer collaborate with me. He was brought into the foster care system, and I was assigned an attorney. She spoke to me briefly on my first court date, having had some time to review my case. She said, “I know why you are here, but I also want you to know I am prepared to go to war for you.”
The moment I stood in front of the judge, he looked down and smiled at me and said, “Something is telling me you have done everything you can do. He had one request of me, and that was to never break my connection with my son. I didn’t, even when it became challenging. I was not charged with anything, but I went into the lion’s den for one year until God closed the mouth of the lions and cleared my name and reputation.
One day, I will share my testimony to encourage and strength other parents and youth, and my youngest son will as well. God will get the glory out of his life. The gates of hell did not prevail against me because of my relationship with Christ. God has not forgotten every Mephibosheth. Just like he caused King David to remember Mephibosheth, God is raising you like King David that will bring our sons to the king’s table, and they will be reminded who God has called them to be. They are royalty. They will be delivered from thinking they are nothing but a dog as he said because the enemy has stolen their fathers and caused them to be displaced. King David divinely restored everything to Mephibosheth that he should have had, and God is going to do the same for many young men.
2 Samuel 4:4 And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.