My Encouragement

I had an extremely busy week, doing lots of encouraging with my two beautiful daughters. Andrea lives in Seattle and was home for a wedding and Kara lives in Indianapolis. By an amazing turn of events, Andrea got to work in Indy so I went down to spend the day with both of them. That does not happen often in my world!

We had a lovely day shopping and doing lots of catching up talking about all kinds of topics. I believe it was a special gift from God. Thanks and praise to Him!

It was not always easy to hear the comments they had to say about me. I tried to be vulnerable and stay open to some of their criticisms, because I want to always be learning and growing in my own life. I did tell them, several times, that I am not the same person I was when they were living in my house. Hopefully things have changed for all of us. The great news is that I discovered I not only love my daughters, I really like them! They are wonderful, caring individuals and I think their husbands are very lucky guys.

The most important lesson I learned is to talk less and pray more! It's not so much about me being right and them being wrong or the other way around, but about learning new ways of relating to each other. They live away from our home town and are actually doing a great job living life without me.

Here is a prayer from Ken Gire that hangs right above my desk and sustains me every single one of my empty nest days.

"My children are not the work of my hands. My hands are not the hands that hold them, not the hands that mold them, not the hands that work all things together in their lives for good. They are the work of God's hands. I am merely a tool in those hands, a tool He has used in some way, for a short time to shape them. Give me the strength to open my hands, not knowing what all You want me to give, knowing only that it is to Your hands I give it. Help me to love those hands more than I love whatever it is I hold in mine."