I recall my teen years in the late 1970s and early ’80s, and the desperate attempts my mother made to save me from the destructive path she saw me heading toward.
I can still see the worry and fear in her eyes. As a single mother raising three boys, she was stretched thin on time, means, and energy. Her anxiety was offset only by her hope that somehow God, whom she had believed in most of her life, could do for me what she could not. It was a tightrope walk for her between faith and fear. Now, having raised children of my own, I feel a deep sympathy for what my mom went through back then, as well as for parents now and the battles they face for their kids in this crazy world.
In the lanscape of todays parenting, the ground beneath us too often feels like sinking sand. We watch our children navigating a world that seems increasingly perilous and unpredictable. We want to be an anchor for them—a pillar of unwavering faith—but if we are honest, most of us find ourselves standing exactly where my mother had so long ago; somewhere between the hope of a miracle and the exhaustion of reality.
This same tension is captured in a popular story from the Bible. In the Gospel of Mark (9:17–27), we read of a man whose son is being “thrown into the fire and into the water” by a ‘spirit’ seeking to destroy him. It is a scene from every parent’s nightmare. The father had tried everything. In his desperation, he brought the boy to Christ’s disciples, but they could not help. By the time he finally stands before Jesus, his plea is tainted by an underlying sense of hopelessness: “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
Jesus’ response is gentle but firm: “What do you mean, ‘If you can’? All things are possible for the one who believes” (NLT). It is then that the father utters one of the most honest prayers in the New Testament: “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Today, the “spirits” plaguing our children may look different than the one in this story, but they are no less destructive. Modern teenagers are inundated by waves of emotional and mental “convulsions”—episodes of sudden, overwhelming distress that leave parents feeling powerless.
Even a few statistics for 2024–2026 paint a sobering picture of these modern battles:
· According to the World Health Organization, suicide remains the third leading cause of death worldwide among those aged 15–29.
· Globally, an estimated 14.3% of 10-to-19-year-olds experience mental health conditions, many of which remain untreated and are exacerbated by the impossible social media expectations they live with.
· Highlighting this toxic environment, a landmark court ruling in March 2026 saw a New Mexico jury order Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) to pay $375 million for failing to protect young users from sexual exploitation and creating addictive platforms that actively harmed children’s mental health.
Like the father in the story, today’s parents often suffer from a deep fatigue brought on by the necessity of continual vigilance. We watch, we hope, and we pray that we can shelter them from the impossible standards demanded of them by the world. When this father says, “Help my unbelief,” he isn’t admitting a total lack of faith. He is confessing that his faith is tired. He believes Jesus is able, but his experience with the world—and even with the “religious experts”—has left him skeptical.
The miracle of the son’s deliverance does not happen because the father possesses perfect, unshakable faith; it happens because he places his imperfect faith in a perfect Savior; Christ Jesus the Lord.
The father stops pretending. He doesn’t hide his doubt to appear “spiritual.” He admits he is at the end of his rope. Secondly, he empathizes completely with his child. Notice he says, “Help us.” The child’s struggle was the father’s struggle. We must realize that our children’s mental and spiritual health isn’t simply a “problem for God to fix,” but a journey He invites us to walk through together.
“I believe. Only help my unbelief!”
I believe God is making an invitation to you and I through this story. If we, like the father, realize that when Jesus says “all things are possible to them that believe”, He isn’t talking about the purity or perfection of our faith, but rather the object, the One, in whom we place our faith in.
In a similar passage of Scripture, Jesus says, “…assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
As a parent, you don’t need a mountain of faith to move the mountains in your child’s life. You need to put your ‘mustard seed’ of faith in Him Who can move those mountains for us.
My mother didn’t live long enough to see her prayers answered in her lifetime. But I know we will have a glorious reunion when I meet her in heaven. Not because of the great faith either of us had or have, but because of He Whom we have believed in; because of Who and what Jesus has done for us.
Ultimately, the question isn’t whether your “I believe” is enough, but whether you have placed that belief in the right place and person. For that part of you that is scared, tired, and skeptical, Jesus is more than enough and more than willing to help with our unbelief.
“’If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Mark 9:23-24
By Pastor Tim Mattox
Paphos Calvary Chapel
www.calvarycyprus.com