Letting Your Children Go
Letting Go
Have you ever been to the zoo? As much as I love the zoo, I do find myself feeling sorry for the animals. It just doesn't seem natural for them to be caged up all their lives.
I feel like a zoo keeper sometimes with so many teenagers! In fact at my zoo, there is the world's largest, never ending, roller coaster! I don't know when I got on, or if I'll ever get off! It is very exciting with all its twists and turns from one day to the next. I never know when I'll be turned upside down with an occasional loop or two!!
My dear friend said to me this past week, "The teenage years are all about LETTING GO." The more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right. Our kids are trying to get out of the zoo!! As much as I would like to keep them in the safety of our zoo, it just isn't natural.
The Lord brought something to mind later that day as I was thinking about my son's upcoming graduation and this "letting go" thing.
When we first have our kids it's like starting a race. We start out with a steady pace... the finish line nowhere in sight. Suddenly, without warning, there it is; the finish line of childhood. You never thought you would get there, but here you are sprinting to the end! It is in this final run I find myself giving it my all, everything I have.
I am filled with so many thoughts during this last part of the race.
Did I do enough?
Is he ready?
What if he fails?
Worse yet, what if I failed?
It is in this final run that I am learning to let go. And as I cross that finish line, with a million different emotions, I will smile as I watch my son continue on to his life ahead.
I will be there when he starts his own race with kids and I will be there when he says, "Mom, I feel like I live in a zoo!"
Copyright © 2007 Theresa Gober
I wrote this as our first son was graduating high school in 2007. He is going to be a senior in college and I have found that although all parents must one day Let Go, we never Let Go of the great love we have for our children. They may have moved out of the house, but they forever live in our hearts. And, if we are lucky, they bring home their laundry once in a while :O)
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Read additional offerings from Theresa:
Letting Go
The Last Game
The Bully
Lost Sunshine - A Christmas Story