Post by Adesanya Ayotola (@adesanya_ayotola)

My greatest fear, and by extension my prayer as a parent, is that I never arrive at a place where I see my children as extensions of myself. I want to always remember that they are not mine to own, but lives entrusted to my care. I am merely their guardian on earth for a season.

One day, they will grow into themselves. They will have their own personalities, convictions, dreams, strengths, and even struggles. Some parts of who they become may be unfamiliar to me, and some may challenge my expectations. Yet I pray that my heart will always be large enough to love them for who they are, not merely for who I imagined they would be.

I do not want my love to be a cage disguised as protection, nor my expectations to become a burden they carry in order to earn my approval. I pray for the wisdom to guide without controlling, to teach without imposing, to correct without crushing, and to lead without limiting.

May I never stifle my children, whether directly through my words and actions, or indirectly through my fears, insecurities, ambitions, and unfinished dreams. May I have the courage to release them into the fullness of who they were created to be.

For true parenting is not the act of creating copies of ourselves; it is the privilege of nurturing unique human beings until they can stand on their own, secure in the knowledge that they are loved not for what they become, but for who they are.

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