LETTING GO AND TRUSTING GOD WHEN YOU HAVE A LARGE FAMILY
is part of the Write 31 2017 Challenge.
Read 31 Days of Life in a Large Homeschooling Family for more posts.
* * * * * * * * *
I am not writing about trusting God with our family size here.
Instead, I am sharing one of the biggest lesson I have learnt in being blessed with a large family. This is Day 14 of the Write 31 2017 Challenge and as I was thinking of what to write under Personal Musings, I thought that I would share that the biggest lesson I have learnt, among many others, of having a large family is this:
Letting go and trusting God
I have to let go and trust God with our children.
Physically, we are outnumbered. Actually, once you when you have more than 4 children, your husband and you are outnumbered. You have officially run out of hands to grab hold of them!
There is just no way to hover over them the way a parent with one child can. And there is no way I can check all their devices all the time. So I have had to learn to let go. Sure, we have systems and rules help me to keep them in check. But as they grow up and mature (hopefully!) I could only do so much.
And so, instead of hovering and checking on them constantly, you are forced to trust God. Helicopter parenting cannot make it in a large family.
When does it start?
With my oldest, the letting-go-and-trusting-God process started when he started pre-school. What?! Leave him alone for 3 hours with strangers??? Lol! ore letting go and trusting God took place when he started taking the public transport by himself. And of course it all culminated when he enlisted in the Army late last year.
National Service
In Singapore, all parents have to let go of our sons when they turn 18. All boys who are citizens and permanent residents are enlisted into the Army the year they turn 18. Deferment is rare. Usually only if they have been accepted into our local polytechnics. This means that we have to let go of our sons then. Many mothers have struggled with this. And struggled majorly.
This is when all our years of training and discipling (if any!) our children will be put to the test. This is also when our faith in God is put to test. Many times we say we trust God but our actions belie it.
Public transport
Don’t laugh but every time a child takes the public transport alone, I am forced to let go and trust God.
Did you ever wonder how our parents managed without us updating them where we were every other minute on the handphone? Lol! I make my children tell me when they reach their destination and when they are leaving for the next place. It annoys them but too bad.
Girls are different?
With the girls, the process will be less traumatic I am assuming since all 5 girls are still home with us. But each time they join an activity that I am not familiar with or hang out with friends I don’t know, I have to remember to let go and trust God to watch over them.
Letting go and trusting God is not easy. c
RELATED POSTS
Helicopter Parenting
Trust God and Do the Next Thing