Who Wants To Get It Right

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

THE WALLS SHOOK, AND A LARGE BOOM echoed through the hallway. I was in the school’s main office as a volunteer preparing for the upcoming spring festival. I stepped out of the office and walked to the front doors of the school. Surely, a bus had lost control and somehow hit the building. But there was no bus—only a plume of smoke rising from the downtown skyline. The air was filled with the sounds of sirens. So many sirens. I couldn’t figure out what was happening.

I tried to call my husband, who worked downtown, but he didn’t answer. His office phone didn’t pick up either. Then the phones in the school office started to ring. It was April 19, 1995, and none of us knew yet what we were about to face together. A bombing had taken place in downtown Oklahoma City, and our country, state, and personal lives would never be the same.

So many decisions needed to be made immediately for our family. Were we safe where we were? Was my husband safe so close to the bombing? Did I need to get to him? I was trying to make decisions with no experience to lean on and very little information available.

Soon I was able to reach Mark by phone. His building, just a few blocks from the blast site, had sustained minor damage. He was okay, but our lives were still directly touched by this disaster. The church we attended was across the street from the demolished building, and we could no longer meet there.

Moving forward, there was the shared trauma of our community members and neighbors, but we were all just trying to make the best decisions for our own families. We wanted to get our responses to this event right. I knew how I responded would mark my daughters’ lives forever. It was a challenge I hadn’t been expecting.

Momma, the events you’re navigating are different from my own, but I hope you see that in every decision we make, we share a common goal: We want what is best for our children. The truth is, so does the Lord. Replaying the moments of your life from the past and wondering if you did it right with the information you had doesn’t change what unfolded in that moment. It may have seemed as if no one told you what to do and no one told you what was going to happen next. You felt unprepared or perhaps currently feel unprepared for what you’re facing now. But here’s what I want you to see: The Lord was the One who led you. He showed you what to do. He helped you make hard decisions in the past, and He will help you make every hard decision in the future. He is trustworthy. As Paul says, “God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” We might not get every moment right, but the first right step in every new journey is the one directed by the Lord.

Tonight we pray for the momma who wants to get it right. Lord, she doesn’t want to make any mistakes because her children are so important to her. Lord, she is putting so much pressure on herself that she’s lost her peace and her joy. Now tonight we ask that You would remind this momma that loving her children is enough in this moment. She doesn’t have to be perfect because only You are. Please help her to rest tonight and wake up tomorrow with renewed peace and hope.

We ask in Jesus’s name, amen.

Lord, please help me get this right: