As August is drawing near its end, parents are readying
children for school. For some of those parents that school may be college and
the child leaving the shelter of their home for a residence somewhere else.
Last night I was at a meeting and a grandmother shared with me that her granddaughter
was leaving the daycare she had been a part of since she was seven months old
to start kindergarten. For a lot of children this can be a very exciting time
and one for which they might even engage in a countdown of the days until it
starts. But for this child there were a lot of tears because her two best
friends, while also heading off to kindergarten, are each going to separate
schools and their daily close bond will soon to be broken. Thinking of this
caused the grandmother to choke up.
Whether our children or even grandchildren are heading off
to kindergarten, college, or even marriage and/or a new career in a new
location, letting go is a difficult thing to do. Yes, there are those you would
like to use a pry bar to get them out the door, but even then I imagine it
would be with some degree of mixed emotions.
And for those older children who have established a life
apart from yours there is the tension which you feel as you hear of their
struggles and as they experience new joys in which you now only share in at a
distance. There is even intense heartbreak for some as their children make seemingly
foolish or destructive decisions, some even turning from the foundation upon
which they were raised.
A long time ago I heard the phrase, “Let go and let God.” I
think it I might have even seen it on a poster with some kind of ‘cute’ picture
like the cat with its paws grasping a bar with the phrase “Hang in there.” But
this can be a difficult thing to do when it comes to someone for whom you feel responsible.
This is where we need to step back and remember that while
we have been given charge over our children to raise them and to care for them,
even this charge is subject to the protective hand of God. We can give them big
hugs, put band aids on the hurts, take them to the store to get their school
supplies, spend hours on the phone or chatting through some form of social media.
We can fix meals, tuck them into bed, listen to hurts, give direction, and pray
with them. We can do so much that is of extreme value and builds into our love
relationships, and all of these are things that they desperately need. But this all
comes with the humbling understanding that God has largely put us into roles in
which we are learning as we go, roles in which we do so imperfectly, and roles
in which we regularly realize our limitations.
When we commit before God to care for, raise, train, and love
the children He has entrusted to us or to fulfill whatever role we might have
in relation to others in our lives, we do so with an understanding that just as
He is sovereign over our lives He is also sovereign over theirs. We move
forward trusting Him to direct not only our steps but our interactions with
others. We even trust Him to do what is best for them as we trust Him to do
what is best for us. And when things go awry and we recognize just how limited
we are, we can find rest in knowing that God does not have limitations such as
ours.
“Behold, children
are a gift of the Lord, the fruit
of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the
children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they
will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.”
(Psalm 127:3–5, NASB95)
“Ask, and it will
be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For
everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it
will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a
loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a
snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to
those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7–11, NASB95)
Today in “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young (8/23)
Entrust your loved ones to Me; release them into My
protective care. They are much safer with Me than in your clinging hands. If
you let a loved one become an idol in your heart, you endanger that one – as
well as yourself. Remember the extreme measures I used with Abraham and Isaac.
I took Isaac to the very point of death to free Abraham from son-worship. … I
detest idolatry, even in the form of parental love.
When you release loved ones to Me, you are free to cling to
My hand. As you entrust others into My care, I am free to shower blessings on
them. My Presence will go with them wherever they go, and I will give them
rest. This same Presence stays with you, as you relax and place your trust in
Me. Watch to see what I will do.
When they reached the place God had told them about, Abraham
built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and
laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and
took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him
from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on
the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God,
because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Genesis 22:9-12
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we
ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us….Ephesians
3:20
The Lord replied, “my Presence will go with you, and I will
give you rest.” Exodus 33:14
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