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Bread for the Journey

 
Letting Go!

It was back a few years when I walked into my favorite shop.
My eyes spotted this sketch and stayed glued for awhile.
It had my name written on it.
I went to the cashier...
 Tears started rolling down my face.
This motto represented my heart.
I had taught this to my children, the best way I could.

 I watched my older daughters make some choices.
One was off to the inner city of Camden, New Jersey using her educational skills,
to serve and support the needy children of Camden.
The other was off to Haiti, using her medical experience, 
helping families recover from the earthquake-torn country.

 It tugged at my heart as I saw them moving ahead with hearts for service.

It was one of those days when I was muttering to myself about letting go,
my daughter turned to me and said.
"Mom, you always told us that you wanted to give us roots and wings."

Little did I know what that meant.
I too have wrestled with these questions concerning letting go.
Yes, I thought to myself,  roots go deep and help our children to grow strong, while
wings lift children upward and inspire them to soar freely, strongly and close to God.
I have to admit...'the wings part is my challenge.'

While children are loaned to us from God only temporarily,
it is our responsibility to love, nurture, train and finally release them
so they can seek God's will for their lives.
Letting go does not mean abandoning them, but it means to give them back to God.
It means to release those controls that are stirred up from needless fears.

"Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over the young,
that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions."  Deut. 3:11

Just as an eagle stirs up the nest, to encourage the eaglet to test its wings,
 when it's capable, it finally flies away, strong and free.
This word picture from the Bible gives me assurance and inspiration
that God too, will be there to help our children reach their potential.

Many of us have had to let go...cutting ties, pushing off and stirring up the eagle's nest.
It truly is a process as we learn to give our children independence.
We want them to serve God - not us.
We want them to depend on God - not us.
 We also want them to know that God will always be with them.
~ we won't.

16 comments:

  1. AMEN! It's VERY hard letting go!

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  2. Beautifully said, Marg, from the heart!
    I love that matted sketch, it WAS done for you!

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  3. I believe in what you said, although I have no faith in god. We only can share them with the world, even if we'd love to keep them with us always!

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  4. This is so true but oh so hard, the letting go part! I am so thankful for a daughter who is self-confident, independent, and has definately developed her wings - so why do I want to hang on so badly when I know I can't? Such truth in your last sentence too!

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  5. This is a lovely message; touched my heart, especially because we lost our youngest son in 2011, very unexpectedly, due to complications of diabetes. I was so distraught at his service that our oldest son took me aside and reminded me what I always told the three of them growing up; "I raised you to fly"! "Mom", he said, "he's soaring with the Lord now"!! Thank you for sharing and God Bless!

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    1. Bobby, your comment resonates deeply with my heart. Our kids become our teachers all over again....Imagine your child saying those words, "I raised you to fly" Yes... he did...and it's wonderful to know he's with the Lord, but meanwhile we want some skin to hang onto.

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  6. Beautiful words, well written, and so true. Thank you.

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  7. Oh my goodness! How many times does this thought (or a very similar one) have to keep coming across my computer screen, my heart and my mind? This has been the reoccuring theme in my life over the last six months. Do you think that God is trying to teach my something? Duh!! I guess He knows that I need lots of reminders and wake-up calls!

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  8. Wise words from Johann Wolfgang Goethe and a mom who has had to let go more than many moms do.
    from Cab in Germany

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  9. Amen. Your words reflect my "heart strings" as well. Thank yu.

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  10. Although I'm still working on giving our children their "roots" and their "wings" are still yet to come... As a mother of younger kids, I am aware that I also need to get rooted in the right place too! God's Word tells us that our children are an inheritance from the Lord... This tells me that as a parent, my children should not take God's place in my life! Neither am I to take God's place in their lives. Yes I am their mother and they are my children and we will share this close relationship forever, but the throne belongs to Him!! God gives and takes away, helping us to depend and love Him as the One and Only God! In the end it's not about us - it's always about Him!!!!

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  11. Thank-you for words of wisdom on letting our children go. With God watching them and loving them more than we do, makes this stage
    a little easier.

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  12. Thank you. Your words are very poignant at the moment in our household with the changes that are taking place. The changes are hard for us all at times.

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