Learning To Let Go

Life is full of lessons that we encounter, even as adults. It seems one of the hardest lessons is learning to let go. The "what" really doesn't matter, the reality is that letting go is hard! Regardless if it's our will, way, wants, control, time, money, pride, hurt - whatever it is, it's not easy to let go. 

As a Mother, God's been teaching me a lot of "letting go" lessons over the past 22 years. Each phase of learning to let go is different with varying degrees of difficulty and emotion. It starts from the time that your child is born and quite honestly I'm realizing that there will be some type of learning to let go throughout the rest of my life on this earth. 

There's learning to let go and let them learn on their own to crawl, then stand and then walk. From there, there's a never ending list of letting go: the first day of school, the first sleepover, the first audition or tryout, and that's all before the teen years. For me, it has seemed at times like the teen years have tidal waves of learning to let go tests. 

I've always been a firm believer in prayer and the power it holds, but I do believe that learning to let go of the boys God has entrusted to us has taught me how important 1 Thessalonians 5:17 is that simply says "pray without ceasing" (NASB).

When both boys began driving, prayer was a constant any time they were out on the road. The phone rings and I find myself tense up immediately. Can I get a witness?

I'll also admit that for me the teen years and the whole process of learning to let go were (and have been) some of the most difficult. However, in the midst of it, God has always been faithful as He's taught me more about His love for us as His children.

Through all of it though, somehow I've had this crazy thought that letting go was going to get easier. Yes, crazy I know. 

Now we're facing a new level of letting go, a new journey called deployment. 

With it come the echoes that letting go is hard! Letting go is a fearful thing quite honestly.

Recently some of our closest friends came together to pray over our Soldier and our family. Before prayer began, several of our precious friends mentioned not being able to imagine being a parent and having to let go of their child. Sitting there listening to them, I felt the same way, I couldn't imagine it. Then, one spoke and said that even though they couldn't, our Heavenly Father knew exactly what it was like. It was at that moment that I started to feel a peace wash over me, reminding me that we are not alone. The God of the Universe knows exactly what we're going through and at a much more intense level because He willingly gave His only Son so that you and I could know and experience what true freedom means.

So as we as a family journey down this unfamiliar path of letting go, I will pray without ceasing and I will take comfort in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 . . .

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NASB)

Even on the days when letting go is so very hard . . . Lord, help me to chose to seek and take comfort in YOU!