Down is Up! (Maybe)

"Maybe down is up!"  This is a comment a friend of mine made to me the other day when we were discussing the disappointing behavior of our children as they are making their way through adolescence and young adulthood.  What I think she meant is:  When they go down, and make unhealthy decisions, there is only one way to go once you hit the bottom, and that's up! (Hopefully!)  I've been observing my son, Mike, go through yet another transition in his life, yet another new beginning.  Today he's writing songs that say, "It's all right, it's all right". Maybe I make too much of that phrase, hoping that this time things will work out well for him. 

Doug and I were talking last night and both of us are still feeling like we must discipline him or "control" the outcomes of this recent attempt to give him his wings.  I think I have really come to the point of complete surrender.  My job is done.  I believe I did it well.  I'm not writing him off or ending our relationship, but I cannot be in control or be the "parent" in the same way I used to.  It is time for him to fly on his own. This is my prayer:

I pray that God will watch over him as he starts again at college, this time in Kenosha at Carthage.  I pray that he continues to grow in his relationship with his girlfriend and that he makes new friends.  I pray that he seeks out spiritual guides and a healthy lifestyle. I pray for him to find out who he is and how he can be in the world on his own terms in his own way but in a way that seeks God's plan in all of this. I pray he finds some peace.

There.  I've prayed it...I no longer control it.  It is in God's hands.