So they have left the nest? What did we send with them?

SO OUR CHILDREN GROW UP, MAYBE, I, along with a lot of you, saw my grandson leave for college. We all waved him good-bye and knew that his dreams were just beginning. Then we all had the realization that as he was heading for the land of the unknown, he was on his own for the first time! He didn’t have mom waking him up, pushing him to get out of bed or to be home by a certain time. We had let our little fledgling be sent out to the wolves. The only protection he was carrying with him, was the wisdom we tried so dearly to put in his mind as he grew. From the time that he took his first steps and fell, to this time, we hoped we were doing the right thing. He will now be taking larger steps (and sometimes falling) and learning to pick himself up to keep going forward. The question is, “How well did we teach him to pull himself back up – after the fall?” Did we run over and pick him up and hand him band aids? Did we let him survey the damage and then find that he had to try to get up again? That each time without too much damage and without help? The only way he learns how great he can be, is to learn who he is and what he is capable of in adversity. The greatest gift we can give a child is the capability of learning that they have power and they have a brain to evaluate their situation. They also will pay the consequences of their bad choices or glean the rewards of the good ones. Hopefully there will be more of the latter. On their own they will be exposed to the partying and the other things that freedom has to offer. Which way they choose and what direction they go in is completely on them now. We silently close the box of bandages and know that we can no longer run and put it over their cuts. I am just glad that no one monitored my past when I went to school. I can honestly say the greatest gift my parents gave me was the full knowledge that if I didn’t do well, it was all over. No more money that they worked hard for and when I returned home, I would be looking for a place to live and a job. Probably not a cushy job either, without the education that I was lucky to be given, and decided to take for granted. The worst thing that we can do, as parents, is to evaluate their lives as we evaluate ours. They aren’t us! They are their own entity and their own individual and they were given their own soul! It didn’t have strings attached to ours. Someday we will no longer be available to them. Have we taught them to live life without us, or have we volunteered to be their crutch through life. We each have our own path and we each decide how to go down it. We either go down the rosy path, or the barbed wire one. But it is a choice that we each in our soul have to make for our journey. They can’t pack everything you would like them to take on their journey. They will pack what is comfortable for them. All we can do is pray, put them in God’s hands, and stand by. Sandra

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