Our children are born with our physical DNA. They are a complex combination of two that have become one. They look like us, they sound like us and they act like us (which is why my kids got disciplined so much). We quickly learn that we have a great responsibility here. Yes, we have given them their physical DNA, but now we must give them their spiritual DNA. The teaching, shaping, molding, building of who they are in Christ begins the moment they are born into our lives.
There are years of exhausting discipline, shaping, teaching, correcting, molding and these years are not for the faint of heart! There are moments of joy when you know they really get it and pillows soaked with tears when you wonder if you are the only mother on the planet who has given birth to rebellion incarnate.
Then, there is this moment. And, it really does seem that it happens that quickly. Years of tirelessly planting seeds into precious soil begin to yield fruit – beautiful fruit. Your child’s life is a field that you have spent years tending – planting seeds, watering those seeds, pulling up the weeds that came along to choke out the growth, praying for sunshine when there have been too many cloudy days and crying out for rain when life has been dry and harsh and has threatened to crack and break the soil beyond repair. This field has been your calling, your responsibility and you have taken it very seriously. You and God have tended it together – Him guiding you; you, your precious one.
Then, it happens. The shift, the turning. The precious one becomes the tender of her own field. She is now responsible for what gets planted, what grows and what will be harvested. She must now walk row by row deciding what and where she will plant. She must weigh the options, the risk, the timing. She must pull the weeds. She must pray for sunshine and cry out for rain.
What is the original tender of the field to do? This has always been the greatest responsibility and investment of a life submitted to this very process. But, now? To step back? To turn the seeds, the planting, the watering and growth over? It is so very difficult. In this moment, there is trepidation and a guarding of the heart, but it is coupled with great joy and indescribable peace.
The precious one still comes with questions about planting. Although it would be easier to do it for her, she must learn. She will try, she will succeed, she will fail. My long time voice of final authority becomes a sounding board instead. Phrases like “you should do this…” or “you need to consider that…” become “What is the Lord saying to you about that, my love?”
You see, I never was the tender of the field. The Holy Spirit inside of me was. Now, because of Christ, the precious one has the same Spirit living inside of her. She will follow His lead, she will own a beautiful garden and, will one day tend to the fields of her precious ones. Letting go…
~ Kristine Morgan
The Pastor’s Wife