Dear Lord….
Here we are, God. Year 2. Lord, You keep working Your perfect plan, and I continue to be grateful.
Thank You for being with Catie through freshman year, God. You were right there with her—through the nights she stayed out with new friends and the days when she was homesick and weary. Through all the road trips and all her races. Through her a-ha moments of discovering who You created her to be. Through the Nebraska winter and the dark drives back from Lincoln on country highways, she was never alone.
Thanks for holding our family close—even when we felt her absence like a cold, hollow space. Lord, You’ve taught us how to hold her loosely and pray fiercely. You’ve shown Mike and I the joy of seeing our girl grow into a funny, energetic, strong, wise woman after Your own heart.
Make her secure in herself because she’s Your child. Let her friendships be rich, but not her identity. Let her boyfriend be her partner, but not her savior. Let her confidence come from her trust that You love her. Let her security come from her total dependence on You.
As she tackles sophomore year—the new ideas! this familiar place! her beloved confidants! the classes & her jobs!—grow her in the ways You want her to go. Make Your plans to be her dreams, God. Let her see evidence of Your perfect care everywhere.
Please hold her close to You. Let the love of the Holy Spirit burn in her heart so brightly she shares it with everyone she sees. Let her friends reflect that love back to her so she sees You, Lord, in every one of their faces.
Most of all, Lord, let her know that she is Your child. With that confidence to anchor her, she will go so far.
Amen & let it be so.
