🎉Yesterday Gavin turned 12🎉
Watching our kids grow is beautiful...and hard. I love watching them step more into who God made them to be but to do so I am seeing that I need to start stepping to the side.
For example, Gav got this pitchback for his birthday and started setting it up himself. I wanted so badly to step in to help him yet, in spite of my strong desire to go close, I knew it was best for him for me to say, “You got this. Reach out if you need a hand.”
So I said that and stepped aside. Although my outside was calm and confident, internally I was aching to lend him a hand and be doing the project with him.
Yet he patiently persevered and put it together himself, step by step. He had to undo and redo things a couple of times, but rather than stepping in to fix it for him, I watched him from afar work it out in his own. At one point he did reach out for a hand when an extra one was needed and I was grateful that he asked, and that I was able to lend a hand.
I won’t pretend I do this perfectly all the time but my hope is that I give our children space to rise up, and mess up, and rise up again so they can nourish life skills they will need as future adults.
I share this because I know I am not the only parent who struggles stepping aside to help our kids grow. If you can relate, I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
May we recognize that sometimes helping our children means stepping to the side. Doing so won’t always feel right in the moment, but may we trust it’s the right thing in the long term. May we walk beside them as they grow and do what is ours to do to help them grow into their best self, which sometimes means not doing anything at all but being a supportive fan from the sidelines.
With love and hope,
Shawn
