It is important for parents to remember that they had life and purpose before they were used of YAHWEH to bring life to their children. The parent’s own life and not their children’s lives should remain their center focus. This statement is counterculture and that is why it probably feels wrong right now but let me explain. Christ gave His life to save man, but man was never His center focus. Christ highest priority was always to do the will of the Father and His focus never deviated from that task. He never lost grip on the reality that He was before man and that ultimately He would return to the life He had with the Father in His former glory. If Christ had shifted His focus to man, He would have been shaken as they forsook Him for their own lives.
37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” 39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:37-39 NKJV)
Many parents are shaken, even broken hearted, as their children shift their focus from them to their own lives, their own friends, their own goals, their own purposes, but it was always going to play out that way. At the birth of my first child the Spirit of GOD made it clear to me that I was a steward of His inheritance. The process of raising children for parents is a gradual but continual learning to release. The way to prepare your soul for the moment when you realize they are moving on is to make sure that the gradual releasing I spoke about is the continual process of putting them into GOD’s hands. You can consider GOD’s hands the knowledge of His love and His will. Hopefully, they have learned that the practice of faith is learning how to be still in His hands.
To those ruled by the selfish and narcissistic spirit of this world, they find themselves at polar opposites of parenting, either never taking responsibility or never releasing responsibility. The ones never taking responsibility don’t give the required sacrifice and the ones never releasing responsibility have enlarged themselves forgetting their role as steward. I just wanted to touch those dynamics because they impact the wellness of many people and families. To parent properly you must allow yourself first to be parented by GOD so He can teach you and deposit into you the love needed to properly nurture your family. As you parent, never lose focus on your own life and your own purpose or else you may lose your bearings as your children fade from view into their own lives.
A loving parent desires to do it perfectly and thank GOD that perfection is a consequence of His grace and not a parent’s flawlessness. Hopefully, your children have learned that the warmth in your family has always come from the fire of GOD’s Spirit and as they venture out into the world you all will always share the warmth of that spiritual fire, regardless of time and space. I pray my family and yours enjoy the sweetness of unlimited S’mores near the fire of GOD’s eternal Spirit.
theinscribedheart 
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