Love More

Letting Go

To let go doesn't mean to stop caring,

it means I can't do it for someone else.

To let go is not to cut myself off,

it's the realization that I can't control another.

To let go is not to enable,

but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To let go is to admit powerlessness,

which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To let go is not to try to blame or change another,

I can only change myself.

To let go is not to care for, but to care about.

To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To let go is not to judge,

but to allow another to be a human being.

To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,

but to allow others to effect their own outcomes.

To let go is not to be protective,

it is to permit another to face reality.

To let go is not to deny, but to accept.

To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,

but to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.

To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,

but to take each day as it comes.

To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone,

but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To let go is not to regret the past,

but to grow and live for the future.

To let go is to fear less and love more.

by Anonymous

As our kids grow, letting go can be hard, but it's what they need. If you struggle with letting go - whether for the first day of preschool or the first day of college - I recommend Give Them Wings: Preparing for the time your teens leave home, by Carol Kuykendall, published by Focus on the Family. Thank you, Barb.