What's the Plan?

Have you ever heard a parent say, “Where did the time go?” Standing on the cusp of the Senior year for a youngest child certainly informs this perspective! On the front end, when children are babies, the years stretch long before us, and it is hard to imagine being the parent of adults. However hard to imagine, it happens! How should we respond to this inevitable truth?

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Psalm 90:12

This month on the blog we have talked about living ready and being aware of the cost of following. All of this relates to learning how to count our days, and all of it is easier to do in community and with a manageable plan. That’s where Relay Exchange comes in! Relay Exchange is a tool for your parenting toolbox, useful to moms as they minister to their daughters. Specifically, it is a tool that is helpful to create community, both for mothers and for daughters, and it is a turn-key roadmap for setting aside meaningful and fun time together. More than anything it is a path toward helping our daughters become Jesus followers. 

When our daughters are small, our presence is very large in their lives. As they grow, our presence and our influence gradually decrease. As Jesus followers, one of our most important tasks in parenting is to graciously decrease as the presence of God becomes front and center in the lives of our children. We don’t simply want to step out of the picture at age 18, leaving a vacuum. Nor do we want to continue to try to parent adults! Instead, our goal is to replace ourselves with Jesus. Instead of being under our authority, the child eventually joins us under God’s authority. She no longer answers to us, she answers to God. Gradually, her first thought transitions from “what would Mom say or do or think?” to “what does Jesus say or think, and what would he do?” She steps out from our provision and protection into the arms of Jesus and into his perfect provision and protection. 

Participation in a Relay Exchange community is a way to gradually and methodically provide our daughters with the skills, with the knowledge, with the confidence, and with the character they need to be independent of us and dependent on Jesus. 

We would love for you to plan to join us!