Learning to Let Go

Mommy Mondays

Have you noticed how College dorms are starting to look like fashionable mini-apartments? Maybe it's just that Facebook has opened this phase of life up to me in new ways.

I'm grieving with parents who post: "Many tears were shed as we drove away." One sweet teen set-up a beautiful table with candles and a family favorite board game on her last night at home. Talk about tugging at the heart.

My oldest is already wearing my socks. In a few years we'll be hauling all of her belongings in the back of our truck.

How do I learn to let go? 

This idea of letting go expands beyond my children. One man at church whose daughter just left for China said, "I think life is full of hellos and goodbyes." 

As God moves the pieces of my life, I feel like He's asking me, "If everything changes, am I enough?" Does He have 'permission' to arrange them differently than I've planned?

Friendships. 

Traditions.

Relationships. 

Goals. 

Ministries.

Have you heard Francesca Battistelli's song "I'm Letting Go" yet? I love her music & lyrics:

I'm letting go
Of the life I planned for me
And my dreams
I'm losing control
Of my destiny
It feels like I'm falling and that's what it's like to believe
So I'm letting go

Letting go means living with opened hands, open to whatever He gives or brings...  or removes.

Too often I live with one hand mostly open, and the other hand is scurrying around, trying to place everything just so, just as I want it.

From Ephesians 4, into my open hands He also wants to remove:

Anger

Bitterness

Jealousy

Slander

And then to add:

Kindness

Compassion

Forgiveness

God, I want my hands to be open. Ready to receive. Ready to lose. Ready to go or stay. Jump or stand still. I can rest assured that You are in control, and You have a good and perfect will for me and those I love. I do not need to be the orchestrator of my life. You are more than capable. Help me in the process.

What does this look like in your life?

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Romans 12:2

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." Ephesians 4:31-32