Let them go.
This is the year where our twins are getting way more independent. I know they are only 4 but it seems like they are teenagers already. Forming their own personalities, and lets just say we are learning that we are going to be in for a crazy time, especially with Evans. She is our Spiderman loving, wild child. Our risk taker, push you to your limits child. This includes sled riding. Up until this year both girls either wanted us on the sled with them or were scared to do the “Big Hill.” Not anymore. Evans now is at the spot where she will yell at you, “I go by myself.” That has been a challenge for me. I can’t honestly tell you why, besides that these are my lil girls, and maybe I am just not ready for it yet. (The boys on the other hand, go for it, the earlier they could get on a snowboard the better.) With this reality I know it means that she will take some falls, she will get a bloody lip or two and tears will be shed. I have also had to come to the grips that as she gets older Lindsey and I will have to entrust her to try things on her own. We can hold the tube, we can point her in the right direction, but eventually we have to let her go. So as I shout to her nervously, “You got this baby girl” I have to start believing it myself.
The first few times watching her fly down the hill right towards the jump I was nervous. Grabbing my board to be on the ready to chase down after her, I would wait anxiously at the top watching her fly though the air waiting to hear if she started crying. Out of amazement though all I would hear would be wild laughter and smiling, “I DID IT, I DID IT.” Now she is hooked, asking everyday, “Big Hill? Big Hill?”
Do I still get nervous, without a doubt. Has she taken some falls, oh yeah, with tears to follow. Follow by, “I go again.”
I don’t know why this is hitting me so hard lately but is this how Jesus felt when sending out the disciples for the first time. Taking that step from watching over them, teaching them, showing them how to do ministry. To now entrusting them to do it on their own. Would they fail at times, would they always do it the way he taught them? Would he trust them?
The Bible doesn’t give us a time frame for how long the disciples were with Him before sending them out, but we know it was under three years, most likely within a year of being with Him. I can only imagine the thoughts going through His mind, are they ready? “Well, maybe Peter is but Matthew how about a little more training. John, you are good but Judas, yeah your personality doesn’t really line up. We don’t get any of that, it just says He sent them out in groups of 2.
In Mark 6: 7 it says, “He called the disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them power to cast out spirits.” In Luke 10 we read of Him sending 72 more. Entrusting them with the message. Were they all ready? Did they have all the proper training? This information we do not know. What we do know is that He empowered them and He entrusted them. He is still entrusting us and empowering us to this day to carry His message.
Just as we had to get to a spot in life of emtrusting Evans with that inner tube to go by herself. Now the beauty in all of this is hearing her talk about it when she gets home, the joy in her voice telling Lindsey all about how far she flew through he air. The testimony of what she just accomplished.
This again is true of the disciples, in Luke 10: 17 it tells us how the disciples joyfully returned excited to share all they had seen God do. So as I wrap this up today do you realize that God is still entrusting and empowering you with His message? Do yo still get excited to share all that you are seeing God do in your life? He is alive and at work all around you, will you be the one too say God I am ready, send me.
