Letting go....

I heard once that motherhood was the greatest heartache a woman would ever experience. I also heard that mother's enter into this endeavour knowing that we will have our hearts broken, but we do it anyway. I must say that I believe both of those. We love our children so much it hurts, and we know that there will be disappointment and heartbreak along the way. One of the things that nobody mentions is the guilt moms feel. I wish we could learn to let go of the guilt. I feel guilty for every struggle in my children's lives, no matter what it is. If you feel that way, you are NOT alone! But I want us to make the effort to let go of the guilt! I don't know why things happen in this life. I don't NEED to know why---I just need to know that God is in control. And whether our children's hurts are a skinned knee, a breathing problem, a heart problem, a bad grade on a test, or their first broken heart, we can't spend our time feeling guilty about it. That's not living! Maybe Forrest's mama was right---life really is like a box of chocolate; you never know what you're going to get. I don't know about you, but I'll take the bad along with the good. If you think of it like chocolate, you know that some you'll like, some you won't, but it's not worth throwing away the entire box, just because you bit into the orange creme, and you were hoping for chocolate truffle! You take the bad along with the good, because you know that, at some point, the good is going to come around again, and you're going to savor every minute of it. Soak it up, and let it sink in. Then, when life hands you the bitter, you can handle it. And you pray....if you pray over your children every day, then you can trust God to do His part and take care of them. Does that mean that hardship won't come? NO! It just means that, no matter what, you trust God to see your children---and you---through the rough times.