Hi, and welcome to the Five Word Prayers Daily, a five-day-a-week, daily devotional where we share the word, prayers in our heart.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent.

So there's something that rears its ugly head in the kind of final stretch of parenting, although we never stop parenting, really.

And I want to talk about it today. It's

something we experienced throughout our whole parenting life and especially beyond, I think.

It's also something we need desperately to let go of, so it's perfect to talk about this week.

You ready? Let's go.

I remember before my son went off to college, I got into this really weird place where I was

constantly lecturing him about things. And one day, he was getting pretty tired of it. And he asked me

why I was always telling him so much and giving him so much advice. And I didn't even think about it,

but I just sort of answered back because I'm not sure if I've told you everything. And I have to prepare you to leave here. And what if I haven't even think about it, but I just sort of answered back because I'm not sure if I've

told you everything and I have to prepare you to leave here and what if I haven't done that well?

And there it just came. I blurted the whole thing out. All those feelings I had been having

of not teaching him enough and what if I hadn't remembered to tell him this or that? And honestly,

I still have those moments. And we still discover things I forgot to tell him this or that? And honestly, I still have those moments.

And we still discover things I forgot to tell him, even though he knows so much, much more than me

in many ways, which is what happens with your kids. It ends up flip-flopping. And I have to force

myself not to feel guilty over it. Parenting guilt is huge. It's also something we have to let go of because

here's what happens if we don't. It puts a strain on our relationship with our child. When we feel

guilty all the time, we have these tendencies to smother them to gain their love or maybe even

their forgiveness. We have a tendency to get too lax with our standards and our rules so

that they will like us, or we'll pull away or they will, because it's just strained and awkward

...