Walking through suffering can feel as if we’re stumbling through a foggy, endless night, unable to ever find the light again. Here are three lampposts to guide us through.

As your emotions rise and fall like the tides, do you feel as if God goes out with them? Be assured: God never leaves His beloved children. The Spirit remains within us as a constant, unchanging Person of the Trinity, despite our heart’s dullness at times.

When I’m drowning in a season of suffering, my pain often floods my vision, and I miss the small moments where God is still faithful. Suddenly all his promises and claims of character fall flat in front of me like cardboard cut-outs. He’s still the same God in that suffering, but often it’s my eyes—my faith—that have grown jaded and weak.

April was c-section awareness month. All month long I scrolled past social media posts empowering me to stop seeing my scars as a failure but as celebration of what my body could do. Those posts angered me. My body did fail me, I thought. There’s a bit of truth to that, but I’m learning that there is still cause for celebration—though not in me and my body, but in a God who is much greater.

“Be patient,” has been our daily lesson lately. With newborn twins on the way, I especially wanted him to learn that it's okay to wait a few minutes before his requests were answered. And yet, at twenty-three years old, patience is a lesson I’m still learning. And like most lessons, to teach patience is also to exemplify patience.

This is when I picked up Glenna’s book, The Promise is His Presence. In her book, Glenna took me by the hand and led me through her story of suffering, waiting, and unanswered prayers alongside the redemption narrative of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

Though we may rightly lament the pain our earthly fathers caused (and seek help if we are in an abusive situation), we can also find hope in our sonship with our Heavenly Father. Though our earthly dads fathered us in sin, he fathers us in perfection and righteousness. We are not fatherless.

I fear vomiting. I have my entire life. Yet God has proven faithful time and time again, even though I continue to struggle with this overwhelming fear.

As well as we know the sting of the unfaithfulness of others to us, we also know of our own unfaithfulness. Who can be trusted? If even those who love us most will still be unfaithful due to their sin, and we ourselves cannot be trusted because of our sin, is there anyone who we can look to that will be steadfast?

What we don’t think about is the possibility that we may not always enjoy motherhood. That motherhood isn’t all bliss and sloppy kisses. I experience days like this, and I know the only thing sustaining me is the grace of God. If motherhood has taught me anything, it is that God will hold me fast.