The Answer to a Hard Life

Recently, I was speaking with a young Christian mother who is a single parent raising an absolutely spectacular elementary-aged boy. I have known this young mother since she was a toddler. In fact, I even babysat her on many occasions in her childhood.

Through the years, I have watched her grow into one of the hardest-working women I know. She owns her own home, works long hours at a demanding job, and on top of those hours, continues her higher education, all while raising her son on her own. She makes sure that she meets all his needs, as well as providing the extras. But he probably has no clue that those needs and wants are met through the blood, sweat, and tears of his precious mother, who also makes sure he is at church every time the doors open.

As we stood there at a recent community-wide Christian event in which her child was participating, I could see the exhaustion in her eyes, and I knew for a fact that she had worked all night. So, I hugged her, told her I loved her, and asked what was on her heart.

Standing there in her work clothes, she smiled and said she was fine. But then, she took a deep breath and whispered, “Life is not supposed to be this hard.”

I hugged her a little tighter and whispered back, “I know.”

I offered some words of love and (hopefully) wisdom that I gathered long ago when I was also a tired mom. But the difference was that my tiredness as a parent back then was a burden shared equally by the daddy of my two sons. The man to whom I have been married for 46 years, so my struggles back then were very different from her current hardships.

In all honesty, I have no clue how difficult it must be to raise a child alone in today’s world. So, my words rang hollow in my own ears, and even though that shared moment passed, my pondering of her words continued for days. Her words of exhaustion bugged me and pulled at me.

Now, I am not blind or deaf to the world around me, and I realize that single moms are a large demographic in our society. Until I began researching the topic, I had no real clue how big a demographic these exhausted mothers really are.

According to March 2024 statistics from the United States Census Bureau, America has 9.8 million single-parent homes with children 18 years of age or younger, and 7.3 million of those homes are run solely by mothers.

Similar studies from the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population reveal that those 9.8 million homes mean that one in four American children live in a single-parent environment, and of that unbelievably disturbing statistic, over 80% of those single parents are mothers.

Without a doubt, this data shows that my sweet young friend is not alone in her solo-parenting dilemma. The awareness of her shared sisterhood of single parenting might validate her feelings, but they do not negate the soul-deep weariness I saw in her eyes.

So once again, I say to her, “No, my sweet young friend, life was not meant to be that hard – for you or the other 7.3 million mommas out there doing life as a parent on their own.”

And when we get right down to it, life was not meant to be that hard for any of us.

The truth is that God had a very different plan for his children in the beginning. The Bible explains that God created a literal paradise for His first earthly children, and He called that place of perfection Eden.

That perfect world did not need rain to water it or someone to till the ground to bring forth food. Every animal in that paradise lived in peace with every other creature. There was no work required, no sickness, no fear, no need for shelter, nor even any clothing. All that was required in that world by its Creator was the desire for a true relationship with His human creations.

As such, all was right in Eden – until the day that God's beloved children disobeyed the only restriction they were given. That was the day sin entered the world, and life (the one God intended for His children) got very, very hard.

That's exactly why He sent His Son to save us from our sin.

Even now, people continue to ignore God’s plan by disregarding Jesus and disobeying His Word. As a result of that continued rejection, life continues to be harder than God ever intended for it to be.

Sadly, information gathered by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University in its 2025 Worldview Inventory shows that America’s callous disregard for God is growing. Of the more than two thousand Americans polled, 46% stated a belief in only “one supreme spiritual being who created and rules” everything in existence.

Only 4% possessed a truly biblical worldview, while 92% based their worldview on a combination of various philosophies. This worldview (called Syncretism) is one in which individuals pick and choose ideas, combining and creating a personal belief system to suit their own life choices.

If that’s not scary enough, only 16% of polled adults said God was the most important element of their lives, and only 14% claimed God as the main influence on their life choices. Yet, three out of five of those same adults (62%) admitted that sin is “an act of disobedience against God,” and 56% also admitted that “sin is a life-changer.”

Let those research stats sink in for a moment: Humans, for the most part, know that God exists. They believe He created and controls everything. They overwhelmingly choose to ignore His Word and its biblically-based worldview – in favor of a view that suits their own daily purposes.

That is the perfect definition of sin.

No, life should not be this hard, but it is; a sin-filled world is a hard world in which to live. And the only cure for the sick, dying, sin-filled culture in which we are living is Jesus.

He’s the answer, pure and simple. But the solution to our sin-sickness requires total surrender of self to the Savior.

Regardless of how hard life gets or what our flesh demands, we must keep on keeping on, as the old saying goes. So, the hard answer for these hard times is to follow Him and obey His words rather than our own:

My son, give attention to my words;

Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your sight;
Keep them in the midst of your heart.
For they are life to those who find them
And health to all their body (Proverbs 4:20-22).

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