Letting Geese find true north...

I tend to have control issues and often find it hard to rely on God's providence or to believe easily His Hand on my life... but I do know it is there! I know that my steps are ordered by Him. I believe it.

photo credit: Texas Goose Hunting

I was watching a show the other day and a character on the show had made some artificial geese---but they weren't flying North at the same time as all the "real" geese and he was curious what he had done wrong in all his love and care of these fake geese. At the end of the show he realized that in building in a compass he had made it TOO sensitive and the geese were having a hard time recognizing TRUE North. His point was that in his FEAR that the geese wouldn't know what to do or not do that the right thing he had TRIED too hard to make them perfect ( i.e. made their compass TOO PERFECT).

I find I do this with my children. I am often fearful of the day that one of them "wanders" from the way of life Dave and I want for them, or the call of God on their life, or chooses to not perhaps make some of the same choices as we have for our life ( I don't mean repeat the bad ones!)... I want to control them-- NOT to be controlling but so that I can make sure they go the right way!

Imagine how God feels! Imagine GIVING your children COMPLETE and TOTAL free will and letting them go, free to choose completely for themselves?

We as parents don't even do that! I train, teach, retrain, reteach and retrain some more in hopes that they will choose the "right" path! We remember that they have free will but we often FIGHT the free will to conform them to the choices we have for them!

I am not advocating that we allow them to run of the house-- I am just saying we truly do not have any control over choices they will make when they are not under our authority.. we can train and teach them, we can raise them in a certain way, we can pray over them and do all the "right" things but they will go their own ways.

Some of them will find "TRUE NORTH" right away. Then there will be others who will turn off course and wander a bit before getting back on the right track and still others often don't find their way at all. We can't control this...

GOD is in control. GOD knows what is going on. GOD is a good GOD. I can worry and "control" and that is SIN on my part and it isn't helping anyone.

Here is to us raising AND letting our Geese go..regardless of their direction.