{"id":779,"date":"2017-08-15T23:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T04:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=779"},"modified":"2017-08-15T23:00:22","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T04:00:22","slug":"the-letting-go-intertwined-with-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=779","title":{"rendered":"The Letting Go Intertwined with Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

To all of you parents out there who are in the thick of letting go, I get it.<\/p>\n

It’s hard!<\/h4>\n

It’s long and challenging!<\/h4>\n

Some of you are sending kids to school for the first time.\u00a0 Some of you are sending them to school for the last time.\u00a0 Some of you are letting go of control.\u00a0 Some of you are watching as they begin to build their separate lives with friends and partners.\u00a0 Some of you are helping them move to new places across town, the state, the country, the world.\u00a0 Some of you are sending them to places for healing.\u00a0\u00a0 Some of you\u00a0are having to watch\u00a0as they make decisions you would not make.\u00a0 Some of you are having to let go of dreams you had for your children and accept what really is.<\/p>\n

Whatever you are having to let go of, grief is not far behind, even in the midst of good things.\u00a0 It’s a part of letting go.\u00a0 Sometimes it comes and goes\u00a0quickly.\u00a0 Other times, it hangs around heavily on the shoulders for weeks as if it intends to stay forever.<\/p>\n

It’s that grief that always catches me.\u00a0 I know that letting go and releasing kids to be adults is part of parenting well; I just didn’t know that grief was so intertwined.<\/p>\n

\u223c \u223c \u223c<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This week in the midst of letting go and feeling the\u00a0grief creep in,\u00a0God comforted me as He reminded me of some truths.\u00a0 First, as much as I love my kids and want the b\"\"<\/a>est for them, God loves them more and\u00a0knows absolutely what’s best for them.\u00a0 Second, He’s in charge of their story, their life; not me.\u00a0 My job is to follow God’s leading as I parent and trust Him with their lives.<\/p>\n

Sounds good and easy, right?\u00a0 Well, maybe good, but not so easy.\u00a0 I forget.\u00a0 I want to control.\u00a0 I want to know the future.\u00a0 I want difficulties minimized.\u00a0 But that’s not the life God’s called me to.<\/p>\n

So when fears, disappointments, concerns, and desire for control rear their ugly heads,\u00a0I turn to Him.\u00a0\u00a0He reminds me again of His love for me and my kids.\u00a0 He reminds me of His sovereignty and His presence.\u00a0 And when the grief comes, as it does,\u00a0He sweetly comforts me with His Spirit, His Word, and His people.<\/p>\n

This parenting thing is hard, but we have a God who understands and offers us grace and compassion as we navigate the letting go.\u00a0 So soak it all\u00a0in deeply, have a good cry, and face the new season knowing He’s with you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  To all of you parents out there who are in the thick of letting go, I get it. It’s hard! It’s long and challenging! Some of you are sending kids to school for the first time.\u00a0 Some of you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=779"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":784,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}