I was praying for my teens one morning asking God to protect them and to do His will for their lives, when I had a vision of myself walking with my two teens as we held hands, then I suddenly let go of their hands to grab God’s.
It was a powerful image in which God communicated to me that as long as I’m holding their hands, my hands are not free to hold His. And He reminded me how much more important it is that I hold His hand than my children’s hands through my parenting journey. Then I could see how by releasing my children’s hands they were free to hold God’s hand too. Not only do I need to release them so that I can hold on to God, but so that their hands are free to hold on to Him also!
Of course I immediately thought, But they have two hands! thinking I could hold one hand and He could hold the other. To which God answered, “Yes, but you don’t always know where I want to lead them.” In a matter of seconds I understood exactly what He meant, I can unintentionally slow them down, skip important steps, or pull them in another direction.
I want to release my children’s hands so all of us are free to hold His hand. I know I won’t always do it perfectly (releasing my kids’ hands and holding His hand), and that I might not always like or understand God’s leading (for myself or for my children). But what better hand to hold on to as we walk through life than His?
Now I’ll pray for wisdom to know what this looks like in a practical way. I’m thankful that we serve a God who is able to reveal things to us, and to give us the grace to follow His lead.
Your turn!
- In what ways are you holding your teen’s hand?
- In what areas do you struggle to release him or her?
- Where is the line between training/teaching him/her and letting him/her figure things out on their own?
Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas from Pexels
