Rise

Rise

Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.

AT FIRST, my friend laughed when she saw the portrait her son had drawn. Hastily scribbled on lined notebook paper, the ink drawing featured a woman with bloodshot eyes and a snarling mouth with rows of jagged teeth inside. “You sometimes” was scrawled at the top of the page.

But as the picture continued to sit on her dresser, propped in plain sight, she found her eyes lingering on it more and more. Did her kids really think she was that angry person?

Parenting brings the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and big feelings, hormones, and sibling spats contribute to all sorts of challenges. Privately, my friend admitted that it felt like the harder she tried, the harder she failed. That’s a secret fear all parents have felt at one point or another.

God’s Word doesn’t promise that we won’t falter. In fact, a lot of heroes of the faith failed in pretty spectacular ways. But Proverbs reminds us that even when we fall, we’ll rise again. The word rise comes from the Old English risan, and it’s characterized by action: “to rise, rise from sleep, get out of bed; stand up, rise to one’s feet; get up from table; rise together.” It’s important to notice that no one is going to push us to our feet or lift us up without our cooperation—when we rise, we must make a choice to do so.

On days when we feel like we’re failing, the reminder that we can rise again is a comfort we can hold on to. It’s a promise that meets us, even in the face of our own imperfections. It’s a hope for hard days, quiet despairs, and softly spoken prayers.

Every time I worry about how my kids will remember their childhood, I remember my own mom. She got angry every once in a while, but those moments were offset by her steady presence and quiet love. At the end of the day, that’s what I believe our kids will remember. And as I messaged my friend back, still aching over the drawing, that’s what I told her, too.

Tomorrow’s a new day. We’ll rise again.

Lord, thank you that each time we fall, you help us to rise again. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Step: Encourage someone you know who is struggling in an area of their life.