When It's Time to Leave the Nest

The reality of my son's senior year set in this week. We visited his preferred college on Monday for Scholars Recognition Day. My kiddo has been blessed with an amazing mind and great test-taking skills. During our university tour, the biology department took the kids into a couple of labs and talked to them about career opportunities. We also met with the band director and later we toured the vet school.

As we drove away, I could already see him walking the campus, and I realized - not for the first time this year - that I'm really going to have to let him go.

After 17+ years of protecting, guiding and coaching my child, it will be his turn to make decisions and choose his path. I'll still be cheering from the sidelines, but there's decreasing space for me to run alongside of him these days.

I've been reading a devotion on the Bible app titled Women of Welcome: Bold and Brave by World Relief. It focuses on the women of Exodus around Moses' birth. The devotion writer pens these words as we read Exodus 2:3:

Jochebed's faith and hope are fully displayed with her bold decision to release Moses into God's care. She worked. She prepared. She released him.

Those words hit me in the gut. It's where I'm living right now. We've worked hard to raise our children, to ensure they know they are loved. We've prepared them as best we can for their adult lives.

And now we must release them into God's care.

They have been His all along, He just allowed us the opportunity to play a role in His plan.

Maybe you aren't releasing children into the world, but you're releasing a dream or long-held hope. Read these words about Moses's mother and be reminded that our God is the same faithful, loving God who sent Pharoah's daughter to rescue the baby in the Nile.

Below you'll find two images that you can use to aid in remembering this verse.