Cocoons

I was talking with a friend and we were talking about our kids and the struggles of teaching and raising them.  Our kids feel the growing pains of learning and growing and discovering independence. It got me to thinking as tweens they are like the caterpillar getting ready to do into it's cocoon. They still depend on us but try to test the boundaries and resist the cocoon as it begins to form. They don't want to be restricted or held back. However, the cocoon of their family and the rules of their home are necessary so that they can grow right. Without that cocoon they could not grow in a healthy way. Now one family's cocoon is going to be different than another family's cocoon. However the basis is love.  Unconditional love is the cocoon that keeps that child safe and warm even when the child pushes against the rules.  It is in that, the child learns to make their way through life.

When the child emerges from their cocoon in their teen years, their wings are wet and fragile. They must be careful with their new wings, test them out slowly and learn to fly.  But as they do under the love and control of their parents, they become stronger so that one day they will be ready to SOAR.

I pray that as I do as the Lord called me to do in parenting that my lessons are filled with love and mercy. That I will live before them the way to fly, the way to handle independence and the rules of the world around them, and the edicts of God's word.  I want my children to soar but I want them to know that without the Lord, they would not have a cocoon, nor wings with which to soar. I want them to know that God has put in each of them a purpose, a plan and a destiny.  I do not know what God has called my children to be, but I must nurture and teach them to live true to who God is and true to who He has called them to be. But in the living, and the flying, they must be aware that their Creator, their Lord, their Father is their source and strength. As we wait upon the Lord to see His will and way, we are being created and fashioned and formed into a beautiful person who can impact the world.
As adults sometimes God puts us through the transformation of our lives again and again. Not because we didn't get it the first time, but because He is bringing out something new in us, adding to the beauty He sees in us. Submitting to the change is not always easy. Sometimes is is not comfortable.  However there is one promise that holds true:

Sometimes I submit well to the tests and trials of life. Other times I whine and cry or fuss. No matter what I do, just as I love my children, no matter what, my Father in heaven loves me, just as I am. Patiently He waits for me to learn to wait upon Him, to be still and know that He is God.  

I pray that I will listen to His voice as He continues to transform me into who He wants me to be.