Leaving Home

The aim of every parent is to work themselves out of a job. Some have failed miserably. Others have succeeded in spite of themselves.

The preacher said in the Old Testament. There is a time to hold on and a time to let go.

It is letting go season.

When we lived in Lafayette, I would watch the children walking to the school that was just down the street. You could tell the kids that were going to school for the first time. They would be decked out with new clothes and new bags anxiously walking to school. They were now "big". Usually closer than the kid wanted them to be was their mother. The mother would be teary eyed. She could not believe this day had come. Her baby was going to school! What would she do?

I heard of one elementary teacher that had to have one mom escorted out by the security folks. Seems the mom thought that she could just stay a while to make sure life was good for her darling. Don't you know that that kid was embarrassed?

Leaving home is a part of growing up. Some folks never seem to learn the art of growing up. You know these folks. They look the same as they did in high school only with fifty pounds assorted around themselves. Their life is still on hold. It is as if they do not realize that they are now out of date.

Leaving home is an opportunity to become what God has intended for you to be. Yes, there will be tough times. And good fortune will come as well. Broken hearts and broken dreams with a hope fulfilled sprinkled in. The past becomes a reference for great things to come or lessons learned.

It is leaving time for college kids. It seems as though just yesterday we were teaching them how to ride a bike, how to tie their shoes, and how to drive. Now it is time for them to be on their own. They spread their wings and fly!

I love this story so I share it every year with no regrets.

A young man arrived at college and was unpacking his bags. His mom and dad had finally left him there! It had been a tearful time for all of them. But he was now in his space. He was unpacking his suitcase and at the bottom of the suitcase, he found two pieces of cloth. The young man held them up and looked at them closely. They seemed very familiar yet distant. Finally he remembered where they had been seen in his life.

As a little boy, he would often go into the kitchen where his mom was doing the daily routine of kitchen work. He would reach up and grab what he could to get her attention when he wanted something. The apron his mom wore always had two pieces that hung down far enough for him to reach and tug on. She would stop what she was doing and pick him up.

The two pieces of cloth from the bottom of his suitcase that he held in his hands were from the apron he had tugged on as a little boy. His mom had cut the strings. It was time to let go.