More Letting Go

Something pretty awesome happened today! References to butterflies kept coming up. Whether I read about them or saw them on tv. I should write about butterflies, I thought. But nothing came to me.

We have what I call “The Lane” on our property. It’s a path we keep mowed that runs along our creek. (I know, we’re blessed, right? God is just that good!) Anyway, I asked my two little ones if they wanted to go walk it real quick since we were inside with our noses in technology. My 8 year old daughter sees a butterfly. Not any butterfly but a monarch! I took a couple pictures of it.

Isn’t she beautiful? I looked them up on good ole’ Wikipedia tonight, trying time find some inspiration. I knew the Lord was speaking to me but couldn’t see much beyond that. Until I went to check on my two little ones. Almost 6 years old and an 8 yr old. Sweet little faces, so calm and serene as they slept. My heart listened as the Lord showed and reminded me that before I know it they will be grown and gone, out of my grasp. The thought is terrifying to me. My youngest gets upset about our rules she says, she’s moving to Texas when she grows up. (Watch out Texas, is all I’m sayin’ there)

I have a 24 year old daughter, so you’d think I would have this letting go thing under my belt. But not so much because she’s autistic and will most likely live with me for the rest of the forseable future. With that being said, there are many firsts for me as a mom with the younger two to come.

Friends my age are planning graduation parties and moving their sons into a college dorm. One friend in particular, her son is 18 and her daughter in 16. Where does the time go? Will she be able to let go without too much fuss? She’s done a great job of preparing them for this big, cruel world. But has she prepared herself for the moment she wakes to find her home an empty nest?

Did you know a butterfly’s life span is 5-8 weeks long? I watched that beautiful monarch today resting on a leaf. No sound coming from it. Just an occasional flap of it’s wings spreading open wide to show me it’s God-made colors and designs. Just as I thought it would never leave, poof, it lighted off the tree and quietly fluttered away.

While I have my little ones home, I want to pour goodness, character, charity, a true love for God, meekness, temperance and love into them. One way or another, you can be sure I will do that. But what about me? Will I stand at my door waiting as they take flight hoping they boomerang back to me? Or will I be strong enough to let them go?

“Who I Am” by Casting Crowns 
I am a flower quickly fading:
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still You hear me when I’m calling.
Lord, You catch me when I’m falling.
And You’ve told me who I am.
I am Yours.

James 4:14 (KJV) Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

What are you gripping onto? Tightly, white-knuckling, holding onto something that’s here today and gone tomorrow. Time? Money? Friends? Or maybe you’re holding onto your children like me. All of these things aren’t ours to begin with. They are all blessings God gives us for the purpose of shaping and molding us; ultimately preparing us for eternity. And with our children, a double purpose of not only shaping us, but the responsibility of shaping another life to prepare it to take flight.

Here’s an awesome poem about Heaven by Wordcoaster…