I’ve done the research.
The statistics for single parents and their children are not encouraging to say the least. From failed marriages, to increased drug and alcohol use, crime, and depression: the picture of children from single family homes is bleak.
And it makes me angry.
Not because I’m in a demographic that I never wanted to be in—isn’t that the case for most single moms? Not because the statistics always take a negative bent—I mean, seriously, almost every one. And, not because what they say has the power to keep some women in bad situations because they fear for their children—regardless of how much more dangerous staying in their current situation is.
But because we believe them.
As if single moms aren’t facing a hard enough battle ahead, we’re told from the get-go that “they” already know the outcome. As if the numbers set our children’s lives in motion and what happens next is out of our control. As if speaking the very things they say sets some cosmic order that can never be changed. That we are helpless to change.
But here’s the thing: Single moms don’t raise their children alone.
Because our God is the God of the fatherless, who promises to never—never—forsake us. He is the God of the brokenhearted. He promises to restore the broken years. He is the God of the widow and orphan—including those who are placed into the same position through separation, abandonment, or a failed marriage.
And no amount of surveys, calculations, or statistics can compete with that.
In fact, if we looked at the statistics of families in the Bible, it would look pretty bleak as well. Families broken by the very same things that have broken apart our own. And yet—God redeemed them.
Because God doesn’t believe in statistics. He believes in grace. And forgiveness. And the truth that all of us—regardless of where we come from or what we go through—are loved deeply by Him.
And while we often live up to the expectations people put before us, we don’t have to live up to these. In fact, we need to dispute them. To tell them that in this broken world, where the definition of family is changing by the minute, single parent families are a reality for more than one out of every four children. That those children matter. And that we are committed to doing everything we can to help them heal, prosper, and make a difference in this world.
Sweet mom, your children are not a statistic. And neither are you.
You—and I mean all of you—are children of God. And that alone is enough to overcome anything we face. Because the one who is in you is far greater than anything in this world.
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