Surviving As a Single Parent

The American Family Unit has changed drastically over the years. Where the typical family unit used to be a mother, father and children the majority of families today are single parent with the majority of single parents being mothers.

Surviving as a parent is difficult enough but making it as a single parent can be brutal. Here are a few things that all parents can do to survive parenthood and raise Godly children.


Be Fed
In I Kings 17:9-12 Elijah had fled from the wrath of King Ahab to Zarephath under the Lord’s direction. There he meets a woman who recognizes him as the prophet of God.

He asks her for a drink of water and a cake of bread. Her reply was interesting to say the least.

"As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die."

Her intent was for her and her son to eat to die. Even though she recognized that she was in the presence of a man of God she didn’t recognize what God could do in the life of her and her son.

She made the same mistake that many parents are making today. She tried to rely on her own means for the survival of her son.

There are so many resources and helps for parents out there. The church is leading the way in this by providing ministries for children and their parents that are targeted at enhancing spiritual as well as physical growth.

It is the parent’s responsibility to equip themselves in a way that allows both themselves and their children to succeed in life.

Follow Godly leadership
In verses 13-16 the prophet Elijah instructs this single mother to go ahead and fix the bread for her and her son but to make him a small portion first. By doing that the jar of flour and bowl of oil would never be empty.

This was a simple test of faith. Did she really trust in the guidance and leadership of this man of God? Verse 15 says that there was enough food every day to feed her, her son and Elijah.

There is a reason why the divorce rate among couples that attend church is less than half of that of couples that do not. There is a reason that the graduation rate is higher and pregnancy rate is lower among teenagers who have grown up in church.

There is a right and wrong way to do everything including raising your children. Everyone follows a certain type of leadership but not all of it is Godly. Whose leadership are you following?

Place your children in God’s hands
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"
Why did this happen? After all this widow had done for Elijah why would her son die?
It’s amazing how many things we fail to give over to God. We give our lives to Him and call Him Lord but we never let Him in our marriages or in our homes. We don’t trust him with our children or anything else important to us. Those things we want to manage ourselves so we can always keep a firm hold onto them. What we are really doing is not trusting God enough to place those things in His hands.

19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" 22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"

This mother had to experience total loss before she placed her child in the arms of God. What are you waiting for?

On February 19, 1979, a small plane crashed into Ontario Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, and a ten-hour story of death, courage, and survival began. The passengers of that Cessna 172 included the pilot, a young woman, an attorney, and his eleven-year-old son. The pilot and the attorney were killed in the crash. The boy said he knew his father was dead when he tried to rouse him and “he wouldn’t wake up.” The boy and the young woman huddled in the snow near the plane for seven hours, hoping to be rescued. Finally they decided they must attempt the treacherous descent of the mountain or freeze to death. Shortly after they began, the woman fell 350 feet to her death. The boy, all 75 pounds of him, was lost and all alone on a mountain in the freezing cold. Bloody and bruised, broken bones in both hands, his father lying dead a few feet away—what was he to do? He never gave up. He slid most of the way down the mountain on the seat of his pants, clutching a stick in his fractured hands. Whenever he began to slide too fast, he wedged the stick in the snow as a brake. About 5 p.m. he was found near a village at the foot of the mountain and rushed to a hospital. Wet, bloody, and exhausted, he was still very much alive.

Before his release from the hospital there was a news conference. The boy encountered a barrage of questions about his ordeal. How did he find the courage to go on? Didn’t he feel like quitting? He answered simply, “I’m alive today because my dad taught me never to give up.”

Your children are learning from you. They are learning to be people. They are learning to be husbands and wives and they are learning to be mothers and fathers. How are you teaching them?