Our children... are His children

I had written these thoughts about "Our Children" in 2008, five years after they had all married and left our house very quiet and a little empty. By then I actually had time to reminisce about all those years I was allowed to co-labor with the Father (in a very minuscule way, of course) with the molding and shaping of the 3 little lives that He had blessed me with. I realized, after the fact, that there was more than one way to look at each and every opportunity I had as their mother. And it had become way too easy to question whether I had done a good job with the years I had with them. So I share this with all of you now because I do believe I would have been encouraged if someone had said these things to me during this season of life. Of course, it's much easier to look backward and see that the Father was there every single minute, of every single day, of every single year. Even in those times when I felt alone and inadequate, He was there desperately trying to cheer me on, and remind me that HE HAD CHOSEN ME to love on them for as long as He allowed. And as these little ones became bigger ones, I had to believe that He was walking beside me on every step of this journey called parenting... and He was walking beside them as they were becoming more and more independent. Who better to be partnered with than the One who created me, and who created them, and who loved all of us more than we could ever love each other... if you can even imagine that!

                       Thoughts on "OUR Children" 

I believe nothing in life will cause a woman to experience so much joy and yet, so much pain as our own children. Is that possible? Our children steal our hearts early on and we spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out how to find peace in our hearts concerning them.

• We want them to be able to depend on us, but we don't want them to fear    independence or shelter them from the joy of living their own life... 
• We want to keep them safe, but we don't want them to be afraid of others or afraid to live life...
• We want to make them strong in character, but we don't want them to ever think they don't need us in their lives...
• We want them to think for themselves, but we don't want them to quit asking for our advice...
• We want them to trust the Father, but we are afraid to release them into the Father's hands.

I am amazed that the Father ever chose to give us such an awesome privilege, that of raising HIS children. He must have known that we would sometimes make bad choices and occasionally forget what He said, and even refuse at times to follow through with what we know to be the right response.

• He must have seen our inadequacies…
• and our weaknesses…
• and our stubbornness…
• and our selfishness...
• and He must have loved us just like we love our children… 
• enough to look past the pain and instead to choose to to delight in the moments that are beautiful…
• because all the other “stuff” in this world pale in comparison to the joy of having each other.

Today I know that we have been blessed as mothers with this amazing gift of unconditional love for our children…

who are actually, ultimately, forever… HIS children.