Today I will be finishing off a message that I will release next week at a Women’s event,  so I will just share a few thoughts today

My eldest daughter is away this weekend on a brass band residential and I’m really missing her.  This morning I looked in her bedroom,  saw her empty bed,  and wondered what she is doing.

It’s not the first time she’s been away without me and it won’t be the last,  and each time I have to content myself with a few sentences of text messages to give me a clue about what she is doing and how she is feeling.

Even when I dropped her off at the coach,  as soon as she had found her friends,  she told me. “You can go now!”

Really! After carrying this person around in my womb for ten months,  feeling every kick, praying and agonising about which name to give her,  witnessing her first steps,  first day at school,  first performance – now I am experiencing her first steps of independence and it’s a bit scary for me.

I remember her first day at secondary school when she got on the school bus and I was waiting in the car for the bus to set off so I could wave goodbye. Then,  ping! I got a text… “You can go now!”

It’s starting to be a familiar theme.

The. Bible says in Psalm 127 verse 3 that “children are a heritage from the Lord,the fruit of the womb is a reward”. What I also must remember is that my children are on loan to me from God.  God loves my children more than I could ever love them.  (And I love them a lot) . God has a unique plan and purpose  for each of my children. While they are in my care I am a steward of that purpose.I can never be fully in control of everything my children experience  I have to be willing to open my arms and entrust the unknowns to an all-knowing and all-seeing,  ever loving and wise God,  who sees into all eternity and knows the bigger picture for my children.

My child,  at some point in time,  will stand before God,  by themself,  and give account of their life.  This will be a journey I cannot make with them. I won’t be able to shield them from their mistakes or make excuses for them.  It will be them and God.

Today,  I entrust my four children to Almighty God.  I will endeavour to do my best to raise them in a godly way,so they will not depart from that later,  but I give all the things that are out of my control into the hands of my loving Heavenly Father.