I remember when our daughter started her second year of college. For me, it was even more difficult to accept then when she began her freshman year. She was moving into an apartment and it seemed so final. I knew that even though she would come home to visit, she would never live in our home like she had in the past.

The day of the move, we headed to Charlotte with three cars full to the brim with her “stuff”. As I drove, the tears poured down my cheeks. I just didn’t want to let her go. I wanted to keep my tight grip on her and on how things were in the past. I can remember silently crying out “She’s my baby! Where have all the years gone?” But then I heard God speaking gentle, soft, and encouraging words to me. God told me I had to let her go. I had to let our daughter go because he had a work to do in her and he had a work to do in me.

I didn’t know what his plans were for my daughter, but because I knew God, I knew I could trust him. As time moved on, I could begin to see some of what God was doing in her life. And I begin to understand more of the “work” he was doing in my life too. My daughter’s testimony is for her to share but I can testify that God did new things in her life that year.  And I can tell you that it was during that time, that I began to teach the Sunday School Connect Group that I’ve taught for over 10 years and the seeds were sown for the Speaking Ministry God has called me to.

We may not know or understand God’s plans for us but we know he loves His children and wants only HIS best for them. His plans are always better than ours. Trusting God with the future, we have to let go of what was to take hold of what will be. We have to release the tight grip we have on the people and things and comforts we know. We have to empty our hands and hearts. And when we raise empty hands and hearts to God in surrender, we are ready to receive “the better” he has for us.

© 2019 Robin R King