My eldest daughter Emily just got married a few days ago! My next daughter Kelly gets married next summer!  My eldest son, Joseph is a brand-new engineering grad, my youngest daughter Bridget has just started University and the youngest of my five kids, Adam, just started high school!

My role as hero-support is changing

With their increasing independence, my role as hero-support is changing too. Sometimes it’s a little bit of tug-a-war. They’re grasping for more independence, but sometimes still huddling close for the comfort of reassurance or a helping hand.

For the most part, I’m excited to help them! I particularly enjoy contributing where my gifts coincide. Throughout the prep time for this last wedding, I was confident in my ability to tackle creative projects, coordinating Kelly’s artwork with Emily’s passion for the wedding theme and the ensuing complexity.

My heart feels different some days. I love it when they come to me for my perspective, but sometimes it stings when they reject it, but still rely on me to make their way work.

Sometimes I’m torn, trying to meet the needs of one of my adult kids, while called and stretched to meet the needs of another.

I can get preoccupied trying to over-plan, anticipate glitches, and take precautions to help things go smoothly for multiple grown-up kids at a time. Their needs and their plans are adult ones and the urgency of their needs often takes priority over my own.

And getting to know them as they mature in their beliefs and hopes and Faith is an honor! We’re still learning from each other, all of us so heavily influenced by our personal experiences.

My husband and I are called upon, often in very different situations for the unique perspective and support we can each give them. When we reflect and talk things through together, my husband and I can form an even clearer picture of the amazing and fascinating young adults our children have become!

We strive to streamline our response: to pray

While we don’t always have the answers to give them in the moment, and our responses are often strikingly more articulate hours or days after difficult conversations, we strive to streamline our response: to pray. We pray together with them and with each other and our most important advice to them should always be to reach out in prayer directly to Jesus.

Our circumstances, relationships, interaction and peace of mind can be ever-changing, but Jesus remains constant.

We are once again reminded that Jesus loves them even more than we parents do. He knows the intricacies and implications way beyond what we know. He knows exactly what is to come and how it will impact their souls.

He wants the best thing for each one of us.

It’s yet another new season of motherhood for me, and incidentally yet another opportunity for a new prompt to pray!

New Prompt to Pray

Every time I begin getting overwhelmed, tempted to worry, and tugged into the familiar habit of over-planning, anticipating what could possibly go wrong, and pre-emptive troubleshooting, I am prompted to pray:

Jesus, I want what You want.

Please soften my heart and all of our hearts to pursue Your Blessed Will. read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!