Posted on January 3, 2012 - by melinda

Submission

Recently I was asked to participate in a radio interview where guests were asked: what is the one word you’d like to “live into” in 2012? Thought provoking question. I wasn’t at a loss for a word though. God’s Spirit had been speaking to me the word, submit.

Having adult kids home for Christmas, kids who are deciding an internship, relationships, and other life choices, I’m confronted again with this truth: that while God called me to bring them into the world and raise them with the best that I had to offer, the rest of their story is largely up to their Creator.  Sigh. God’s Spirit is calling me to pry my fingers off of their lives and, instead, submit their (and anyone else I feel led to manage!) journeys to Him. This calls for less judgmentalism, more grace, and, ultimately, a heartfelt trust that God can do His job quite well. I can offer up to Him my belief in His unchanging character and unfailing love. 

Do anxiety and doubt challenge that belief when I realize my kids are making such important life choices, and wonder are they going to be OK?

Yep, there is surely all of that at times: sadness, worry, anxiety and straining. But God is writing His-story, not Melinda’s-story in others’ lives. And although I may feel confounded at what I see going on around me, I want to rest in submitting others’ journeys to Him, trusting in the Creator of Genesis 1 & 2 and Psalm 139.

God, help me to grow into Job’s words in 2012, “I know that You can do all things, and that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained or thwarted.” (Job 42:2, The Amplified Bible)