Last fall, I became the mom of not one, but two college students! When we sent our oldest off to Houghton almost four years ago, it was a new level for me of surrendering “control” (or rather my perceived control) of her life. This past fall, we sent our son off to Gordon, and once again, I had to wrestle with my “letting go.”

I love my kids and, while I haven’t been able to shield them from hard things, I enjoy being present to help them navigate the hard things… so having two kids five hours away brought me to a deeper level of trust in God and what He was working about in my kid’s lives. I found it ironic as these are a lot of the conversations I have on the phone with moms sending their kids to camp, reassuring them that, even if the week doesn’t go perfectly–yucky weather, conflict with another camper, homesickness, etc.–God is using even these things to work His good in their life. So last fall was a good time to “practice what I preach.”

God reminded me of several promises that I pray now as a mom: from Philippians 2: 12-13 that I would trust God’s work in them “to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose,” from Romans 8:28-29 as I trust that God is faithfully working “all things for the good for those who love him and been called according to His purpose… to be conformed to the image of His son,” and from Philippians 1:6 that God “who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” 

None of these prayers are magical in that they guarantee safety or only good things in my kid’s lives, rather, they are helping me as a mom to align my heart to what God is doing in the lives of my kids, trusting that He knows them and loves them even more than I do and can be trusted as the author of their story.