dear daughter ~ love wisdom

My youngest had this fabulous opportunity for a musical/hiking adventure. Story goes like this…

An invitation from a student at Pepperdine made a way for her to fly to California with her band, DAVIS, and do a concert for a non-profit.

She told me about it. I was thrilled. Fabulous. Wonderful. Wow.

And then she said, “After the concert, my friends and I are going camping and hiking in Yosemite! We’re pumped!!” And I was like, “Fabulous. Wonderful. Wow…” But secretly on the inside I was freaking out just a little. Yosemite is a big park … lions, tigers and bears. OH MY!

Well, no … not tigers. But even worse … creepers! Yosemite creepers. OH MY!

It was then I reminded myself that it was FEAR talking to me, making me freak out about stuff that hasn’t even happened. FEAR telling me to hyper-control. To ruin my daughter’s trip with all kinds of motherly advice like:

BE CAREFUL!
WATCH OUT FOR CREEPERS AND BEARS!!!
MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T GO ON A YOSEMITE ADVENTURE!

But before I said those adventure wrecking words to her, instead of letting FEAR freak me out I said something kinda wonderful. Here’s what I said,

Sara…that is so exciting. To get to camp and hike in Yosemite. Wow. What an opportunity! I do have a tiny favor. When you’re on your trip will you LOVE WISDOM? Because I love you SO much. And all throughout that trip you’ll have lots of opportunities to LOVE WISDOM while you’re making decisions. The great thing about WISDOM is that she will guide you to smart choices. I love you. Love wisdom.

And you know what?

Sara said, “Sure, Mom. I’ll love wisdom. And I’ll make good decisions. And we’ll have fun.”

Sara and her band flew to California. They sang at Pepperdine. Then they got in a rental car and drove to Yosemite. They hiked and camped and had a fabulous adventure. And all the while they were gone, I prayed Sara would love wisdom as she had her great adventure.

For so long, I was a ‘I-love-you-be-careful‘ kind of mother. But then I realized in saying that, I was inadvertently training my kids to fear.

I want to be a ‘I-love-you-love-wisdom’ kind of mother. Because I want to encourage my adventure-loving daughter to enjoy her one beautiful life. I want her to fly to California and sing. I want her to drive to Yosemite and hike. I want her to grab hold of all the adventure God offers her. I want to be a big YES in her life. Not a mom driveling on and on about all the scary, bad stuff in the world. Especially the stuff that hasn’t even happened.

So I have thrown my whole heart into believing that WISDOM is a better guide for her life than FEAR. And I’m going to live there. As a mother, I’m going to:

LOVE WISDOM.

PS> She went. She’s back. She had a blast. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

PPS>> If you need help to learn how to be a ‘I-love-you-love-wisdom’ kind of mom, you just might like reading Unafraid or jumping into the Unafraid Book Club To-Go with some other moms.