Gena sat alone in the car. A tear escaped her eye. Why is this so hard? she wondered.
Katie Beth was her first child, and the first grade year had always seemed so far in the future. But here it was, and there she went.
Gena and Katie Beth had prepared for the day with a new backpack, pencils, socks, and hair ribbons. Katie Beth was ready, and Gena thought she herself was.
But now as she sat in the car watching Katie Beth, pigtails bouncing, run up the same steps Gena had climbed as a first grader, she wasn't sure she was prepared to let her firstborn enter the world of public school.
"Lord," she prayed, "take care of Katie Beth. Provide some wonderful new friends for her. Help her pay attention in class. Let her remember that I love her and will miss her all day!"
Gena had met Katie Beth's teacher, and she seemed very nice. But would she know that Katie Beth did not like her food to touch on her plate? Would she have any idea that Katie Beth was a perfectionist, even down to the position of the bump in her socks? Would she know . . . ?
As Gena watched Katie Beth enter the building, God quietly spoke to her heart: "I am going to take care of her. She is My child too. I love her even more than you do. Trust Me to take care of her."
Gena smiled. She knew all that. But just for a moment as she relinquished her precious firstborn to the mercy of the school, she wished she could go along and be by Katie Beth's side all day! How thankful she was for God's reminder: "She is only on loan from Me to you. She is Mine, and I will be there for her through the good times and the bad . . . especially on the first day of school."
Message for Mommy: And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.--I John 4:16
Pick-me-up: Is there anything harder than letting our children go? Mothers take their responsibility of looking after their children very seriously, and that is as it should be. But as our children get older and the things we release them to seem bigger and more potentially dangerous, it gets harder.
Mothers often need to be reminded that God loves their children more than they do. God understands the heart of a mother. After all, He created it. But He also planned for mothers to train their children and help them grow into independent people who love Him.
Today ask God for an extra measure of trust as you guide your children into independence in the world and their place of peace in Him.
Creative Parenting: As you guide your child into independence, help him or her learn that true independence can be achieved only through total dependence on God. That is a lesson we learn in small steps, but mothers can help their children understand the concept probably better than anyone else because of the difficulty they experience in letting their children go.
*Being entered in the drawing to win a copy of Mommy Pick-Me-Ups is easy. All you have to do is e-mail me and tell me what picks YOU up as a Mommy. I'm sure you've got some wonderful answers! And for each pick-me-up you send me at heycarriepartridge@gmail.com, you'll be entered in the book drawing, which will be on Friday, July 30th. Then look for a post next week that will list everyone's favorite pick-me-ups!
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