Martha Olawale

“Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it.” Proverbs 8:33

When the nurses handed me my daughter and I saw her in the delivery room, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and love. Looking at her face and feeling her delicate body was scary, yet it sent tingles through me. I had no idea how to clean a tiny human, let alone raise one. However, almost two decades later, God’s Word has been the road map through which my husband and I have navigated, and it’s proved to be enough.

We chose the God angle from the start, and while we might have made many mistakes and are still learning to avoid pitfalls, God’s grace is sufficient as we continue to allow Him to guide us. If you still ask me how to raise a child today, I’ll point you to Christ because anyone can live right through His grace. Although we’ve been blessed with some amazing friends and families who helped us along the way, God is the foundation on which we are building.

To get it right in everything we do, we must look at it from God's perspective and trust Him to take it from there. A man who honors a game's rules has a greater chance of winning the gold than one who does not because you will be disqualified if you don’t play by the rules. How we love, act, react, and even raise our children should mimic the heart of God, regardless of negating forces. While there’s no guarantee they won’t miss a few steps on their journey, our responsibility is to trust God and leave the rest to Him.

Why give away wisdom to embrace uncertainties? Of what value is a pack of nothing to a pack of treasures? Living wisely is to walk within the confines of life in honor of God. God’s love is all-encompassing, and His eye-view is beyond our minds' view. We can’t go wrong trusting Him because He knows what’s ahead of us and how to help us navigate life.

God’s ways work because every detail is written in truth that unfolds in His love for humanity through Christ’s death. A million ideas have come and gone, but the precepts and wisdom of the Bible are eternal. Instead of looking for detours around the Bible, learning to live by it will save us a lifetime of brokenness.