Guest Post | Great Worth in Small Things

Mothers who have gone before me understand and mothers who have yet to go through this stage do not look forward to it.  2012 is the year my first child will be graduating from high school and I will be learning to let go a little bit more.  There are a plethora of books on raising toddlers and there are books that guide you into your empty nest stage of life, but what about the stage where you are asked to release one child a little bit more and let God takeover.  My children were dedicated in church as infants, made the decision to follow Christ at various ages and I know God loves them even more than I do.  But while growing up they still needed me to guide them, educate them, and love them when they were hurt or disappointed.  That need is waning and what has amazed me is the amount of sadness I have felt this year as I learn to let go of my first child.

As we entered 2012 God comforted me with this verse found in Ezekiel 34:16 “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.”  This transition in life leaves me feeling weak and my faith small.  Crying at the drop of a hat and praying over big decisions, I am reminded once again it is God who is in control and I need to have greater faith and more patience.  The verse in Ezekiel reminds me God is the tenderest toward those who feel weak. In The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes writes that “Christ values us by what we shall be.”  God takes something little in our eyes and develops something of great value.  What we see as a little plant becomes a mighty tree, what the world sees as a little stable, becomes the birth place of a King, and a pearl small in size becomes something of great worth.  He has promised to strengthen the weak, take my small faith and lack of patience, and develop them into something of great worth.  He also has promised to take the small 3lb baby I had 17 years ago and develop something of great worth in him.

As I sort through the photos to create a DVD for the graduation party, I let the tears fall but have faith in the fact that God is tender towards my weakness and will provide me the needed strength.  In 2012 I pray my feelings of weakness, small faith and little patience will be refined and developed into something of great worth.  Lord knows I need it, because I will enter this process all over again when my second son graduates in 2014.   Do you think it will be easier then?  Nah, me neither. Thank God I am the daughter of a mighty King who finds great worth in small things.

 
Lori Kasbeer, a lover of all things chocolate, has a house full of boys; three to be exact, however, if you add her husband, the cat, and the dog testosterone runs rapid.  When she is not doing laundry and working full time in Human Resources for a large Florida school district, she is a Christian book reviewer for Lori’s Book Reviews. She loves to get to know people on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.