He Goes With You

“Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

I truly believe that one of the most amazing feelings in the world is when your little one wraps their arms around you for the first time. I’m talking about when they truly hug you because they want to be close to you. Any good mom’s heart longs for their child to give them a big old hug, or say “I love you” for the first time.

Next are their first steps, and trying hard to slowly release their little hands and let them walk away from you, toward someone else. They soon move on to swimming lessons and riding a bike. Before you know it, you are parked in front of the school, where a group of students they’ve never met before are running around playing. You resist the urge to get out and hold their hand as you walk them to the door, but they turn back and give you that look like, “Mom, I can handle it!” 

As you drive away, you fight back tears, your heart is heavy, but you know you have to trust that they will be fine. It gets easier as the days go on, and you have to start trusting them with more and more freedom as they grow. Next thing you know, they are off to summer camp and their first jobs.

For moms, the journey of parenting is always going to be an ongoing lesson of letting go. We want to protect our children and keep them from pain, discomfort and especially danger. I wish I could tell you it gets easier once they are adults, but to be honest, those instincts don’t go away. As the mom of a 27 and 31 year old, believe me, I know!

We watch them grow and gain confidence, strength, wisdom and courage, and it becomes clear that we have to continue to release them.  It makes it a little bit easier with the assurance that God NEVER lets them go. It’s our job to guide them along the way, but it’s not fair to them if we hold them back or drag our feet in giving them freedoms a little at a time as we set appropriate boundaries.

So how do we do it, how do we let go?  The best way I’ve found to let go and step back is to place our kids into God’s hands.

We need to:

~ Remember that God will NEVER leave our children alone. Deuteronomy 31:6 tells us, “Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”  We must be thankful for His blessings and protection.

~ Remember to pray that God will remind them of everything that we’ve taught them. We did the best we could, and that’s all that God asked of us.

~ Remember that our kids WILL mess up.  They will fail. They will get hurt. They will suffer. But we will always be there to pick them up, and help them to get going again with encouragement and love. And most importantly, He will be there too.

Perhaps the Lord’s nudging you to relinquish a bit of the grip on your child. He may be saying, “Let go…you can do this…with me, he’ll be OK.”

As school quickly approaches, let’s pray for each and every one of them as they navigate another school year that is like no other before.  Pray that He steadies their hearts, calms their anxieties, keeps them safe, and allows them to focus on learning and growing.

Proverbs 2:1-11 (NLT)

My child, listen to what I say,
    and treasure my commands.
² Tune your ears to wisdom,
    and concentrate on understanding.
³ Cry out for insight,
    and ask for understanding.
⁴ Search for them as you would for silver;
    seek them like hidden treasures.
⁵ Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
    and you will gain knowledge of God.
⁶ For the Lord grants wisdom!
    From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
    He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
⁸ He guards the paths of the just
    and protects those who are faithful to him.

Have a blessed day!

~ Bev