I would drown if it meant you could swim.

I think that’s one of the strangest things about being your mother.

There is almost nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you safe. No hurt I wouldn’t take from you if I could. No burden I wouldn’t gladly carry if it meant making yours a little lighter.

And yet, I know I can’t spend your whole life protecting you from everything.

One day, you’ll have to make decisions I can’t make for you.

You’ll experience disappointment I can’t prevent.

You’ll face things I won’t be able to fix, no matter how badly I want to.

And that might be one of the hardest parts of loving you.

Because every instinct in me wants to make the world gentle enough that nothing ever hurts you.

But I also know that’s not the world you’re growing up in.

So while you’re little, I’ll hold your hand.

I’ll teach you what I can.

I’ll try to give you the kind of love that makes you feel safe enough to be brave.

And as you grow, I’ll learn how to loosen my grip without ever loosening my love.

I won’t always be able to calm the waters around you.

But I can teach you how to swim.

And perhaps that’s what motherhood asks of us.

To love someone enough to give them everything we can, while preparing them for a life we won’t always be able to live beside them.

I would drown if it meant you could swim.

But more than anything, I want you to know that you were never meant to face life’s waters alone.

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“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

— Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)