Something awful is happening tomorrow.  My daughter is starting high school and yes, I’ve been told.., the next four years will fly by. The first time I realized how fast the next four years would go by was when I had to put on my daughter’s high school application the year she would graduate.  2017?  How is that possible?  The problem with how fast the next four years is going to go is there isn’t a thing I can do about it.   But if you will recall with me I have abandoned “why” so instead I must ask myself “what now?”
My daughter’s principal gave us a challenge at freshman orientation.  He told us to write our son or daughter a letter telling them what we hope for them in the next four years (because I haven’t cried enough).  As I penned that two page, single spaced letter I was reminded again about the importance of prayer.  I can hope, dream, wish upon a star and hold a candle vigil for the 1,460 days of Hannah Rae’s high school years but how will that affect anything?  Why would I do any of that when I can pray and plead to the God of the universe regarding all I hope for Hannah Rae in high school; friends, work, academics, boys and more?  I recently read Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Yes, yes I know, I’ve skimmed over that verse a million times and really not thought that much about it.  But for an entire day, then for a week and then for an entire month I pondered that verse.  He created the heavens and the earth.  Have you looked around the earth lately?  Have you ever seen a river, mountains or the ocean?  If I really, really believe that God has the wisdom, power and ability to create the heavens and the earth, what is it that God can’t handle for my precious daughter for the next four years?
“Dear Lord, thank you for the next four years.  You do not want me to dread them, cry over them or get to the end of them and look back with remorse.  Help me to make the most of the next four years and help me to lift up all that I hope for Hannah Rae in her high school years to you with expectation that You who began a good work in her will see it through to completion.  Thank you that I have you by my side in every parenting decision, every consequence I may have to painfully dole out or to show me when I have to do nothing but show Hannah Rae grace and love.  I pray every mother has you as the foundation of her parenting in order to mother without regrets whether she has four or fourteen years left with her baby.  Amen.”

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