Letting Them Fall

I heard a young woman tell a story last night about her dad having a car accident with her and her sister in the car with him when she was about six. Her dad saw her door fly open and saw her falling out of the car and reached over to grab her by the legs, then realized that if he held onto her that her head and face would drag on the ground and she would possibly be run over by the car. So he let go of her. Everyone survived but what resonated with me is when she said, "My dad knew in order to save my life he had to let me fall." That brought instant tears to my eyes. How many ways can that be true in all of our lives as parents? How many times do we painfully watch our kids fall in order for them to learn how to get back up and move on to the next thing? All we can do sometimes is be there to hold them when they decide getting back up is better than lying there and wallowing in whatever it was that made them fall in the first place. We try to protect them and prevent them from getting hurt. We don't want to watch them fall but sometimes in order to save their lives we have to move out of the way and let it happen.

Praying for yours and for mine.