“The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”
Proverbs 20:24 NLT
Motherhood isn’t for the faint at heart. Let’s face it, it is hard to sit back and watch your children walk through hard times without intervening.
When they were little and we were teaching them to walk we would walk alongside them and embrace their little bodies with our arms. Remember when we were in control? We could guide them ever so gently making sure they didn’t fall or bump their heads.
From the beginning they are fully dependent on us, needing us for everything.
But what happens when they start to become independent? No longer needing us for their every need.
I’m now watching my firstborn love and take care of her firstborn. Honestly, there are times I just want to do it for her. There are days my heart just hurts not because she’s doing it wrong but because frankly, it’s just hard. I want to take the hard and skip to the good part.
But life is hard!! Often the good comes from walking through the hard. Without the hard, we wouldn’t understand or appreciate the good.
And as a mother, stepping away is hard too!
It’s hard to watch your children struggle. So many times over the years I have just wanted to step in and save the day. I wanted to be the hero! But if I’m being honest, my children learned more when I simply stepped out of the way.
Each time I stepped to “save the day” I was teaching them to be dependent on me. I’m not talking about wiping their chins after an ice cream or kissing the boo-boos from each fall or holding them when they are sad. I’m talking about their first heartbreak or jumping in the middle of an argument with their siblings or even when they get fired from a job.
When I released my children back to Jesus, and trust me this was daily not just once, I was letting the Holy Spirit teach them. They were learning “the hard” from the perfect parent, not the one who often made the same mistakes-that would be me.
Momma let the Holy Spirit release you from two things today….
1) He gave you your child or children to raise for such a time as this. You are not perfect but you are perfect for your child, He says so cause He knit them in your womb. “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:5 NLT
2) It’s not our job as parents to know or fix everything. It’s ok if we don’t have all the answers, He does. “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”
Proverbs 16:9 NLT
As the falls become harder our job is to let our Heavenly Father embrace them with His arms. Our job is to love them through it ❤️
Mary Beth Powers ❤️ author.speaker 