Have you ever just felt lousy as a single mom, like you’re not a candidate for God’s forgiveness or you’ve fallen outside the realm of deserving God’s favor? If so, you’ve swallowed the biggest lie of Satan EVER! He doesn’t want you to know that your heavenly Father is the God of 2nd chances. (And I might add, by the way, that I actually know Him as the God of 3rd, 4th, and 5th chances!)
We sometimes forget we’re not the only ones who’ve made boo boo’s in life. What mistakes have you made? Have you ever disgraced yourself as a leader? Committed adultery with a married person? Lied about a sin or plotted to murder someone? These are pretty heinous crimes; yet, King David performed all these and God gave him not only a second chance but placed Jesus the Messiah in his lineage. Oh my!
In all my years of working with single moms, I shall never forget the testimony of Laura. It’s so memorable that I put it in my book The Single Mom and Her Rollercoaster Emotions along with 60 other testimonies of God’s ability to turn things around. Does your testimony look anything like this?
As a child, I prayed every night year after year for the abuse to stop, but it didn’t. As a teenager I prayed for help dealing with an unwanted pregnancy and ended up being raped by a friend’s father and another man. As an adult, I covered the pain with an addiction: shopping. Running up over half a million dollars on my credit cards, I continued the downward spiral: spending, stealing, lying, then spending more. For what? Designer labels to make me feel better? Anything to cover up my past sexual abuse, two abortions, four miscarriages, divorce, and infidelity. At thirty five years old I found myself serving time in a federal prison.
Guilt. Do I know guilt? It wretched my soul to watch my husband carry my three and five-year old away from the prison bars with their arms stretched forth screaming as they left, “Mommy, Mommy, hold me!” Yet, God’s grace found me there, covering my shame with His forgiveness and affection.
Today I’m a free woman in more ways than one. I entered the penitentiary a woman of shameful disgust. I exited a woman adorned as God’s princess and delight. I’m living proof of the power of God’s wondrous grace. Only Christ makes all things new.
Friends, no matter what you’ve done or haven’t done – no matter what you’ve said or haven’t said – no matter how you’ve failed or haven’t failed – God’s plan for good remains fully in tact when we yield to Him.
So take heart with this glorious truth:
We can never drop below the level of God’s grace,
for He is not only the God of a second chance but the God of another chance.
(For a copy of my book, The Single Mom and Her Rollercoaster Emotions, check it out HERE. Then let me know at pam@arisesinglemoms.com that you ordered the book after reading this blog, and I’ll send you a special gift. Hooray for surprises!)
About Pam Kanaly
Aloha! I’m Pam Kanaly, President and co-founder of Arise Ministries. But actually, I think Arise found me wanting to bless single moms years ago. Ministry was never on my mind as a kid. All I wanted to be was a hula dancer. So Mother enrolled me in the tiny tots’ class. Guess God knew I’d have two grandbabies born in Hawaii. I love the great outdoors. You might even find me spending time with my husband grizzly bear watching or camping. In fact, it was on a turkey hunt that God gave me the name Arise Ministries in 2002. I suppose it’s a good thing that I majored in Grammar in college since I love to write words of encouragement to single moms.