Parenting ~ how can this word bring out so many emotions from my heart? My love for my two is fierce. My hunger to see them live out their destinies is insatiable. I will fight on their behalf until my dying breath.
The year my husband and I released our firstborn child was much harder than imagined. It caught my momma heart so off guard. It came too quickly. I found myself hanging on to every moment with my youngest, then still at home, knowing I would have to endure the awkward, unnatural release all over again. Nothing about releasing a child comes easily to a mom’s heart!
Help me, Jesus!
If only we could skip ahead to the last chapter of their book and make sure everything will be “happy” in the end, maybe then we could enjoy the release a little more.
Guess what?
When I read a good novel that’s just what I do; when the drama hits, I skip to the end to make sure all is okay. Sounds like it would ruin a good book, but it doesn’t for me. I still enjoy every page and it’s a lot less stressful! That’s what I want to do with my kids’ stories.
Give me a glimpse of the end, Lord. I promise I’ll still enjoy every minute and in fact, I’ll be a lot less anxious. As unnatural as the release of my kids was and still is, I know it’s necessary and the opposite would be weird, but can I just stop and cry once in a while?
You know what? I can read the end of THE book and know that in the end, it will all be well with those of us who confess:
“The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:7-9.
Lord, help my kids to remember my words of faith over them and not to camp out on any words of mine that were spoken in anger or in fear.
Another end will come one day and it might be sooner than we think. May we release all that hinders us from running the race our precious Lord has set before us. He has not set any of us up to fail. He is cheering each of us on. He is waiting at the end with open arms, whether we are the first or the last to come in.
But the end will come, and I pray daily that as for me and my house, we will be found faithfully engaged, faithfully watching, and faithfully serving Jesus.
