Parenting

Parenting. . .It's all I ever wanted to do. When all the little girls and I back in the 60's and early 70's would sit in the grass on a summer day making jewelry out of clover, we would talk about what we wanted to be when we grew up. I always said I wanted to be a wife and mother.

Then I was blessed with those roles. Mothering. . .such a joy to hold your baby in your arms to feed, to rock, to sing to.

Then you begin to teach them. Being a homeschool mom, I taught many things. . .besides reading, arithmetic, and all those other academics, I taught manners, character traits, we studied turtles and tornadoes and the human body and SO much more.

Then they become bigger than you and you teach them how to drive a 2 ton machine, how to fill out a job application and to go shopping on their own. And you trust.

Then they are sitting by themselves, filling out college applications, deciding what classes to take that you're not teaching anymore. You sit and pray for the professors to have the character and morals you taught your own. And then you trust.

You watch as choices are being made and some make you wince and you pray and trust the foundation that was built will not crumble but that all their choices will be learning tools to make them better in the end. And you trust.

We trust our Savior. When we let go of our children, we can trust He has then in the palm of His hand. If we're not liking the picture we see, we have to trust that our God sees the bigger picture and He is in control. We trust.

When the picture is looking good, we can praise our God for all good things are from Him. We praise.

I praise in the good times and in the bad times, because my Savior is always worthy of praise, no matter what! He is good all the time and all the time He is good and worthy of all praise and honor.

He is my Father and I am His child. He understands all about this parenting business. He knows our hearts, our joys, our griefs, our dreams for our children. We trust.

When our child takes off in that car, goes off to college, takes a wrong turn, takes a right turn, we can say "Lord, he/she is Your child. . .and I will trust You.

We come to that place where we have to let go of them, with our hands, but we never let go with our hearts.

And the day may come when we are old and gray and our children will be holding us, maybe rocking and singing to us, maybe feeding us, and the parenting roles reverse. . . . .may they trust.