The mere fact that God does indeed have plans for our children should calm our anxious hearts. We are not left on our own to wonder and worry and finagle our children’s futures. We can do more than figuratively throw our hands up in the air. We can lift them to our Father, holding our children before His throne and yielding their destinies to His will.

While that doesn’t mean we should sit by and aimlessly wait for life to happen to our kids, it does take the burden off our weak shoulders and places it on the much stronger, broader shoulders of our faithful heavenly Father and Friend. So the first thing to do is to take a deep breath and remember that we have only been lent our children by God for a season. He hasn’t forgotten whose children they really are, and He is willing to take responsibility for them.

2. Having yielded the outcome to God, we are now free to do what is reasonable to help our children set goals and make decisions.

However, we do not determine their goals or make their decisions for them.

Scheming, over-mothering antics may draw laughs on TV, but I am saddened whenever I see real people in their 20s, 30s, and even 40s who are still being coddled and cajoled by their mothers.

Once our children reach adulthood, it is not our responsibility to require that they put money into savings, to hound them about having regular checkups, or to pester them to have the oil changed in their automobiles. As teenagers we slowly hand them the reins of adult responsibilities such as these, and we allow them a stumble or two to help them learn the weightiness of life’s duties and choices.

Now is the time to make certain that our daughters can manage minor automobile care and that our boys can cook a few basic meals and clean the bathroom. Most homeschoolers have had plenty of opportunity to learn basic housekeeping skills over the years. Rest assured that every mother’s son will thank her when he moves into his first dorm or apartment and knows how to operate the washing machine at the laundromat, or when he understands what some of those cleaners in the cabinet are actually used for.

The final season of homeschooling should also be marked by helping your young adults focus their talents and skills on those areas they’d most like to use in their search for a job or career. Many will not know until a few years have passed what it is they really want to do with their lives. But by examining where their interests and talents lie, we can help our young adults discover their goals.

When my oldest son was a high school senior, he felt torn. Avid hunter that he was, and skilled with servicing his own firearms, he had always talked about becoming a gunsmith. On the other hand, he worked part-time at an avionics business, where the owner encouraged him to become a certified technician. As my son neared graduation, he moaned, “Mom, I just don’t know what to do.” Mom, being a typical female, answered (though trying not to be glib), “Well, son, as far as I can tell, whether it’s gunsmithing or avionics, it’s all working with little metal parts.”