Letting Go

Yesterday, I sent my oldest child (what child? he's almost 20!) back to college for year number three. You'd think that it'd get easier each time I send him back, but it doesn't. I think kids teach moms how to trust God. I don't know how mothers do it without knowing that we have a loving Father that loves our kids more than we do. How can they ever let their babies out of their sights?

Tugging at the heart strings even more is the knowledge that we can't be there on his birthday next Wednesday. He will start classes on Tuesday and then celebrate his 20th birthday all alone. Yes, he has his friends, but it's not the same as being home and since he's clear across the country in Washington state, we can't work it out to be there. I praise God for the salvation that my son has received and he derives a tremendous amount of peace and strength from our Lord. But I'm still his Mom and he's still my firstborn son and I miss him like crazy already.

My daughter has adjusted to college life and already hardly calls at all. She's busy with class work and meeting new people. I know that my son will be swept up in his work very quickly and he, too, will be too busy to call. I guess I can be OK with that. This time is a rite of passage, that they both need, to become the adults God intends them to be and that I need to learn how to let them go. I need to let them leave me behind now because that's what a mother should do when a child becomes an adult.

And so, Father, I come to you again to pray for my son and my daughter. Put a hedge of protection around the ones I love. Keep them safe and help them to grow, even though it's away from me, because it was never your plan that I'd get to keep them forever. You gave them to me for 18 years and now they are Yours again. Be their light and their strength, in the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.