She dreaded the task, but it had to be done. Packing again. It felt like she just had done this, but here she was again. Trying to organize her life in a suitcase and 2 carry-ons. She could put it off until later, but it would be better to just get it over with and then relax.

As she packed, she remembered all that she had experienced these past 8 weeks. The hard times, the good times, the AMAZING times!! Every step of the way, although some shaky moments, she couldn’t be more honored to have been chosen to be on this journey. She wondered if the one thing she desired was accomplished; had he changed.

His hair was shorter. He was definitely taller, but had his heart changed? It’s hard to read teenagers, they are so ornery and plain annoying at times. You never know what is going on in that mush of a brain of theirs, but she prayed as she had all 8 weeks. “Oh, Lord, speak to him! Change him! Do whatever it takes. I place him in Your hands.”

As she prayed those words, she remembered Abraham and Isaac. “Am I willing to place my son on the altar and sacrifice him if that was what You asked of me? Is that what You are asking of me?” She cried out in anguish knowing that in order for him to be the man God created and the man she desired him to be there would have to be 2 sacrifices made; one by him and the other by her.

She knew the only way she could be of an encouragement to him, would be for her to take the first step. “Lord, I know I’m not perfect and I have tried to do my best, but I…” Before she could finish her thought, the words cut her like a knife. I don’t want YOUR best, I want MY best.

Once again she had been living to her own standards and making her own plans, worse off, raising her son to those very same standards and plans. “What a failure I have…” Please do not talk about my daughter like that. His words once again cutting in. You forget who I am. I have not forsaken you nor have I allowed anything that I could not use in his life for My glory. As your life has been predestined, so has his. Be grateful for what you call failures, I am using as the cornerstones in the great work I have  designed for him. 

The words provided some comfort. She was aware of the changes in both of them. She knew that all that had been accomplished thus far was by the grace of God, and not by her own works. She realized that even if she (or anyone else for that matter) didn’t notice all the changes in him, the Lord had and that is all that mattered. So, instead of dwelling on what she could have done better, she continued packing…knowing full well more opportunities for “cornerstones” to be laid would be coming up and this time they wouldn’t be made up of her “failures”.