An Open Letter to .........

Dear you...........

I'm not really sure who I'm writing this for, but have felt prompted to for the past couple of days.

Things are going to be okay.  I promise.  Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or even next week, but they WILL be okay.

With school starting again, fears creep up.  Will my child make good choices?  Will they have friends that will be good influences?  Will the familiar battles that seem to happen during the school year re-surface?

During the summer, you had some sense of "control" because they were home and you could keep tabs on what they were doing, now with them back at school and surrounded by others you feel like you might have lost that.  Let me remind you that "control" is not in line with our Heavenly Father's plan.  You never had control really.  Instead, your role is to guide, encourage, teach correct principles, and then allow free agency.  Above all, your divine and most important job is to love your child.

Love them regardless of their choices.  Love them in spite of their choices.  You don't have to love or condone behavior that is not in line with your family or religious principles, but I plead with you to LOVE your child.

They will be tested and challenged and Satan most certainly wants to destroy them, but you can't interfere with their journey here on earth.  Instead, you must pray for them.  Teach them the principles you know to be true and that you hope they embrace as well.  Establish patterns and family traditions of prayer, studying scriptures and worshipping each week at church.  Then you, my dear friend, must step back and allow that child of yours, who really belongs to the Lord, to make their own choices and experience the consequences that result.

All the while, LOVE them.  Love them like you've never loved anything before.  Love them so hard that they can never doubt your allegiance and loyalty to them.  During their times of trial, struggle and temptation, they will remember that love.  Deep down inside, where they won't ever show it to you, they will remember it, and some days, it will be enough for them.  Enough for them to keep going.  They might still falter and find themselves in situations that break your heart, but they will know you love them and ultimately that will be enough for them to find they way back home.

Keep pleading with the Lord.  Keep doing those things in your home that reinforce your values and rules (even when they fight it), don't allow yourself to become angry and engage in verbal or physical battles.  Keep the Spirit of the Lord with you and He will guide your words and actions.  Remember there is nothing a rebellious child can do that is EVER worth your relationship.  Ever.

I beg of you...love them.  Love that child hard, deep and unconditionally even if you hate their current choices.  Remember that they are the Lord's before they are yours.  Remember their great value, and that their struggles are real.  Remember that they literally are in the cross hairs of Satan's target.  Please soften your heart if you need to, soften your voice, soften your tone and LOVE.THEM.

Things will be okay.  In the end, they will be okay.  Things will work out.  Rely on the fact that we were all sent here to succeed and that each of us have cheering sections in heaven aiding us along on our journey's.  Just think, the child of yours that you worry so much about?  They have their cheering section too.

Keep your own faith and relationship with the Lord strong.  Keep your alliance with your spouse unmovable, be a united force.  And then love.

Things will be okay.  I promise.  I love you.  The Lord loves you.  The Lord loves your family.

Stay strong

xoxoxo
mCat