What are you like at letting go? I think that from the moment your kids are born you start letting them go. It’s a gradual and often very difficult process.
On our bike ride from home to church and back yesterday, I started letting Emily and James decide a lot more about when it was safe to ride across the road. Normally I’d watch out for traffic and tell them when to go or when to stay. Yesterday I told them to cross when they thought it was safe to do so. Of course I was still there and would have blocked their path in half a second if it wasn’t safe to cross.
More and more they will need to make their own decisions; not just about crossing the road on a bike but about life in general. More and more Pauline and I will have to stand on the sidelines and gradually move further and further back.
Eventually they’ll be making their way in the big wide wonderful world on their own. Every day we try to move them towards that position. We don’t want to let go too soon and we certainly don’t want to hold them back.
How much responsibility should a nine year old girl and a seven year old boy have? That’s the question we must face every day.
I look forward to the day we can release them completely. Not because I want them to grow up and move away but because I want them to be fully who they were created to be. I love them as they are and I love the people they are becoming. The process is sometimes difficult and I don’t ever want to lose the relationship we have now, but I get so thrilled when I think of all the possibilities that are spread out in front of them.
I pray that I’ll learn more and more every day about letting go.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
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Just love your photos Rodney! Hey, your kids are heaps old mate. Send em out to work and get a few dollars in. Maybe James can have a paper route… and I’ll think of one for a 9 y o girl! She could maybe wash and iron and cook for the Keasts????