Leaning on HIM

As we round the corner from the summer and approach a new school year, I look back and wonder where the time has gone.   I don’t know about you, but this summer has whizzed by.  It has been a very full summer for our family and we’ve made some great memories, one of which was paddle boarding together at the beach.    It was an interesting experience, to say the least, and I was definitely out of my comfort zone.  We were dropped in the water in a marina and had to navigate around docked boats.  We had to fight the current and wind to return to our starting point by an agreed upon time, all while standing on a skinny board, trying to balance and paddle.  It was quite the challenge!

This experience made me think about other challenges that will be before me in the coming season of life and how I need to rely on the Lord in the midst of them.   

This season there will be a new challenge for my family:  my son is playing tackle football.  He’s only 12, but I feel like our world is going to change forever.  We’ve purchased all of the gear and talked about the possibility of injury.  My husband and I have tried to sync our schedules to be able to get him to practices and games each week.  I have to look away when I see him get tackled and try to remain calm in the midst.    

Next month, my daughter will get behind the wheel of a car for the first time as she will be getting her learner’s permit.  She’ll be learning the rules of the road and practice driving so that she meets the hours she needs to get her license.  I worry every time I think about it.  How will I ever be able to let her leave home for the first time as a new driver?    

Parenting surely isn’t for sissies.  As my children get older, they are becoming less and less dependent on me as they are able to do more for themselves.   Thus, I will have to depend more and more on God to help me through this process.  It was not until I became a parent that I truly learned to depend on the Lord; it wasn’t until then that I learned how much I truly needed HIM.  At each stage of their lives, I have learned how to depend on God in a different way. 

I know that during this current season of my life, HE will show me how to best parent my daughter and son at this stage of their lives.  With my son, I’ll be learning the ropes of tackle football, trudging through many nights of practice and the highs and lows of wins and losses.  With my daughter, I’ll have to lean on the Lord for patience as she is learning how to navigate a car on the freeways and side streets. 

Even thinking about how to get everyone where they need to be when they need to be there is enough to make me anxious.  But God is faithful and gives us enough strength to get through each season HE has placed us in.  As we experience things way beyond our control, we learn a greater dependence on the Lord.  For when we are out of our element, HE is in HIS. 

As my kids are becoming older and more independent, I’m still learning the dance of when to step toward them and when to step back from them.   They are learning how to navigate their own walk with the Lord.  It will look different than mine, of course, but I want them to not have to learn the hard way as I did with some things in life.  As their mom, I want to protect them from the pain and hardships that come with some decisions.  This is another area where I have to rely on the Lord and HIS strength.  I’ll be praying my way through this season as I have with the other seasons of my children’s lives.    

Angela Sutsakhan

Don’t be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6