Letting Go

I remember when I was very pregnant with my first child. A dear friend of mine said something to me that I will never forget. She told me to enjoy the last days/weeks of my pregnancy because after the baby is born, it's all about letting go. Although her words struck a chord in my heart, I had no way of knowing then what the "letting go" of parenting would entail. Fourteen years and five babies later, I've now had many opportunities to experience letting go. From the first time I left my baby with a sitter...to the end of a season of babyhood...to the first day of school...there have been many big and small ways that I've been forced to learn what it means to let go. The hard thing about letting go is that most every situation that involves letting go is forced upon us. In order to survive the moment and in order to embrace the moments that lie ahead, we need to know how to successfuly let go. When it comes to being a mom, it seems that letting go for me is just one long process. It's one long learning experience that involves repeated stretching and struggling of the heart. Perhaps all of the "lesser" events are meant to prepare us for the day when our children leave our home and are no longer under our protective wings. Maybe in order for a mother's heart to survive a letting go such as that, we need these many years of letting go in other ways. Because I am a mom who longs to stop the clock and keep my newborn forever tiny...to keep my five year old from that fateful first day of kindergarten...to keep my oldest from beginning high school this fall...I struggle with all of the changes and "good byes" that motherhood brings. It is only by God's grace that He enables me to let go and embrace the many seasons that having children brings. My prayer is that at the end of my mothering days I will have not only navigated these waters well, but that I also will have taught my children and prepared them to know how to let go in life as well.