Good morning…
“Wow Sue,” she emailed after last week’s blog, Facing Life’s Uncertainty. “I continue to marvel at how you seem to write posts that I always need…it’s God looking out for me through you, I just know it. So, it’s exactly five days before I drop off our daughter at college. Sky high is the amount of anxiety we both have with the ‘uncertainty’ of how college will be. How sorority rush will turn out? Will she make friends that choose her and make her feel loved and special? As you know middle and high school were tough at times, so we are praying for the best college experience for her.”
“I loved reading God’s words,” she continued. “Those who watch and wait for favorable winds never plant, and those who watch and fret over every cloud never harvest. I’ve been reminding our daughter of exactly this…and to not be afraid to knock on doors and overcome her anxiety. Get up early and sow your seed, and in the evening find worthwhile things to do. This advice also reminded me of telling her to say yes to anything and everything and everyone, being open to seize the day, every day. But what I’m sharing with her now is this – Rewards come when we most need and least expect them. I love this! I know God has got her and this is her time to shine. Perfect timing for my college bound girl. Anyway, I just had to tell you that even though this wasn’t probably written for college bound students and their mamas, I feel like this was written for our family in that way. Thank you for your wisdom! Xo.”
“Your email is beautiful, honest and raw,” I responded. “It is such an important week for you, your daughter, your family. I also love the wisdom that came through our blog post on ‘uncertainty.’ There are a few key things we can do – sow seeds daily, invest in worthwhile activities, and be on the look out for God’s unexpected but needed rewards. I would add one more thing as a mom who has sent four kids off to college. It is summed up well in today’s Henri Nouwen meditation.”
“In many ways we are like the busy executive who walks up to a precious flower and says: ‘What for God’s sake are you doing here?'” writes Nouwen. “‘Can’t you get busy somehow?’ and then finds the flower’s response incomprehensible: ‘I am sorry, but I am just here to be beautiful.’ How can we also come to this wisdom of the flower that being is more important than doing? How can we come to a creative contact with the grounding of our own life?'”
“In these final five days before you let your daughter go, you being attentively with her is much more important than anything else you do or say,” I encouraged. “Just like the flower, you as a mom are just there to be a beautiful, quiet reminder of God’s ever presence. And as she heads into this new life phase, the best way for her to make authentic friendships is being grounded as the beautiful flower God has designed her uniquely to be. By remaining in creative contact with the grounding of our own life, each one of us will blossom just as God has planned from the day of our birth. I love you and I adore our special friendship. P.S. If the Spirit moves, might I share our email exchange with our written word community?”
“Oh Sue, per your advice, I have spent the whole day with our daughter just being!” she replied. “I love your response and Henri Nouwen’s words sum it up perfectly. Your words and Henri’s words remind me of a friend from church who shared with me – “Your daughter will bloom where she is planted.” I’m living by those words for sure and love what you shared as well! And yes, please share as you wish…as always I can only guess that others might be feeling similarly as this new school year starts, and so I hope your wisdom provides as much comfort to them as it does for me. Thank you for providing so much comfort and hope and faith – you are amazing!”
“God is the amazing One,” I wrote back. “God is growing everything, quietly, beautifully, inside and between us! I am so grateful for the loving, breathing Spirit of God who is in the organic process of making all things new.”
The same gospel that was brought to you is growing and bearing fruit all over the world, just as it has been growing among you since the day you heard and took in the truth of God’s grace… (Colossians 1:6-7a, VOICE).
…Sue…
