We went to walk along a stream in the middle of a shopping center on Sunday. My boys have been very interested in streams lately. We’ve been practicing the Spanish word for stream (arroyo) quite a bit lately although when they say it it comes out as “a yo-yo.” Grande’s just beginning to roll his r’s but he hasn’t figured out how to fit that r rolling into a word yet.
But this isn’t really about Grande. It’s about Chico. It’s about hand holding. It’s about letting go.
As we started walking I walked along with Chico’s hand in mine. I gazed down at him, snapped a picture, and smiled at how much I love holding his hand. Then I let go and watched him run to catch up with his brothers and I realized that I also love to let go.
I love to see how far he can go and how much he can do. In parenting we have times of hand holding and times of letting go. But there will come a time when the letting go is on a larger scale. And we let them go with the full knowledge one day they will find themselves staring into this.
A big black hole. A seemingly impossible situation where they come to realize that they can not proceed on their own without failure. Your mama bear heart may be disagreeing with me right now. I know mine is. We don’t want to think that our children will encounter difficulty or evil in the world. But the truth is that they will.It’s why we are told to pass down the message of scripture to them. So they will know that Israel crossed the river Jordan, that Noah survived a world wide flood, that Elijah was fed by the ravens, and that the miraculous is preceded by impossible situations. And they will be ready to trust and follow the Lord even through the difficult times.
Make sure you tell your children, and your children tell their children, And their children their children. Don’t let this message die out.
Joel 1:3
tell your children this: ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
Joshua 4:22
1 comment
Shanda Oakley says:
January 17, 2012 at 11:01 am (UTC -6 )
The hard part is that my little boys are now 21 and really turning their back on God. i am praying and trusting that He will bring them back because they were raised knowing and loving God. If we raise them with no regrets, it frees us of all the blame when they do encounter evil.