Carson Samson

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

Proverbs 22:6

I am being dramatic, but this has been the summer of my discontent. OK, well, it’s been a tough one at least. I do poorly with life changes. Those major milestones that most parents mark with joy are bittersweet for me. In June, our youngest graduated from high school, and in a couple of weeks, her mother and I will drive her from her home in Manitoba to Ontario to begin university.

I am not handling that well.

My chief concern will always be for her well-being. I want her to be safe and protected while away from home. Then there are the intangible, hard-to-explain thoughts and anxieties I hold over things like: will she be home sick? Will her mother and I devolve into a combined puddle of tears as soon as we turn the car around towards home? Part of my makeup is that I worry about things that haven’t happened yet — and may never happen — at all.

Another worry I have is whether she will find a faith community while away from home. As much as I’d like to, I can not cause this to happen; I can only pray.

There are many nuggets of wisdom for parents in Matthew R.S. Todd’s article on parenting young adults, but to me, four words stand out: “Sovereign hand of God.”

I will have to trust that God is in control. Whatever circumstance we face, we must ultimately surrender our struggle to the Lord. Whenever I project a negative future for myself, which is pretty much a daily occurrence, I try to remember Ecclesiastes 7:14: “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.”

Over the past few weeks, as a family, we have been visiting some of our favourite places together. In my pessimism, I have been calling it her farewell tour. But it’s not a farewell tour, it’s the prompting of the Spirit telling us that we can have joy in the present. And it is always the present, so let’s seek joy in the Lord as we go about life. The sovereign hand of God holds each of us gently in all seasons.

This weekend, I did something small that brought me joy: I moved the bird feeders from the backyard to the front yard so I can see them better. This simple act gives me hope for the fall and winter because, as I sit by my window and watch the sparrows, I will remember that God is watching over my little sparrow.

This editorial first appeared in the August/September 2025 issue of MB Herald.