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Feb 01, 2026 06:00am

The Prayers of a Parent

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I’ll never forget the day I dropped my baby girl off at college. I wrapped her in prayer, trusting that God would guide and help her every step of the way. But in the weeks that followed, it became clear she was struggling. Though she never confessed how sad and lonely she felt, we could sense it during our conversations on the phone—in what she said and what she didn’t say.

We tracked her on Life360 and saw that she spent most days in her dorm room when she wasn’t in class. No matter how many late-night orders of Insomnia Cookies we sent to comfort her hurting heart, nothing seemed to help take the homesickness away. It felt like none of my prayers were being answered.

And yet, that was the only thing I could do to help. I prayed . . . and prayed . . . and prayed some more. We reached out to friends and family to pray for our hurting girl. Ironically, the more we prayed, the worse things seemed to get. Though we kept cheering her on through texts and calls, we wondered how long this would last. As parents, we yearned for better days with no more sadness.

Weeks turned into months with little change, and by the time she came home for Christmas, I knew if we had given her the chance, she wouldn’t have gone back to school. So we didn’t. We kept cheering her on, reminding her that God was in the details.

The very day Aubrey returned to school, I received a phone call I’ll never forget. It came from Aubrey’s phone, but it wasn’t her voice. A girl I didn’t know introduced herself: “Hi, Aubrey’s mom. This is _____. I’m a friend of Aubrey’s and live on her dorm room floor. We were eating dinner when Aubrey fainted and hit her head. They’re taking her by ambulance to the hospital right now.”

My mama heart raced. Hoping it would be a simple you hit your head—you’ll have a good bump, but all is well type of visit, I eagerly waited for more news. Within the hour, symptoms worsened, and the panic button was hit. My husband and I made arrangements for grandparents to come immediately and stay the night with our boys. We sped toward our daughter, who was three hours and forty-five minutes away.

Let’s just say we made the trip in three hours.

By the time we arrived, Aubrey’s condition had thankfully improved. Hours later, she was discharged with a concussion and orders for further testing—testing that later showed no serious underlying problems.

But in the days following the accident, she faced raging headaches along with a challenging class schedule pointing her toward a major that no longer felt right. We questioned her choices. She questioned her major. And it was there, in the middle of this hot mess, that my husband suggested a different path. He recommended a class he believed was perfect for her and her potential career. Reluctantly, she revamped her entire schedule and followed her father’s advice.

At the time, we didn’t realize this would become the turning point of her year. We had no idea that, at the lowest point of her life, God was working through the words of her father. That one class lit her heart on fire, and within a few months, she knew what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

Over time, her headaches eased, and she experienced breakthroughs in friendships. She met a girl in her campus ministry group who became her best friend. By Spring Break, she was taking a road trip with the two girls who stood by her side during her ER visit, and by the end of the semester, she was making plans to move in with her college bestie the following year.

Friends, I can’t tell you how clearly God was in the details of her life. It was an agonizing seven months of watching my baby girl struggle, but we never stopped praying—and God was at work all along. He used loneliness, sadness, and even a concussion to guide my girl back to Him and onto His path for her life.

Parents, your prayers matter. God hears them. He doesn’t always answer with a “yes” . . . but something special happens when we don’t give up. He aligns our hearts with His heart. He changes our perspective and deepens our trust.

Oftentimes, we want to save our kids from the hard things in life, but that is when faith is found, refined, and strengthened. That is often when a personal relationship between our kids and God truly begins. That’s when they discover the God their parents have been talking about.

At the end of the school year, Aubrey reflected on her journey as she read through her daily prayer journal. As she revisited those hard, tear-stained entries, her eyes were opened—God had been with her in her darkest, hardest moments. And He did answer her prayers in His own perfect way. Not only did He open the door to lifelong friendships, but He also guided her toward a career perfectly suited for her.

The struggle allowed her to experience Him in a whole new way—a heart-changing kind of way.

Oh yes, friends, when it seems darkest in our kids’ lives, God is with them, always guiding them back to Him and His light.

That’s when a parent’s prayers can make all the difference.