Handing over the Keys

I have a new driver in my home. My mind still cannot fully comprehend this phenomenon. I mean, it was just yesterday I was teaching her to ride a bike and pump her legs on the swings. But somehow, I am handing over the keys, and she can leave our home without me.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t the best parent when it came to teaching my child to drive. At first, I couldn’t even do it. When my husband was in the passenger seat and I was in the back, I couldn’t watch. My heart raced, and my mind thought the worst. Eventually, as she improved, I was able to be the adult in the passenger seat. There were still times when I yelled and hit the imaginary brake on the passenger side, but all is well. We survived.

But here’s the thing—I’m not just handing over the keys to the car. I feel like I’m handing over the keys to the world—a fallen world—to her. There is so much independence and responsibility that comes when you are able to drive and experience the world all on your own. Is she ready? Am I ready?

I know she is ready for driving, and of that I am confident. She has done well over the fifty hours of required driving for our state, she has passed her tests with scores of 100 percent, and I haven’t hit the fake break in months. One thing I have recently begun doing with her is instructing her less on where to go and having her listen more to the GPS. I always use the GPS when driving, but I often have the voice directions turned off, and I look at the map. However, I know she needed to start hearing the directions and tuning her ear to listen for the cues of when and where to turn.

Our GPS, however, doesn’t always direct us on the best path. It directs us on the fastest or shortest route, but not necessarily the best one. For example, we live a little way out of the city, where there are several dirt roads. Usually, before anyone comes to my house for the first time, I tell them to ignore their GPS and take a different way, because if they went the way the GPS told them, they would end up driving on dirt roads.

Now, dirt roads aren’t always terrible; however, more often than not, they are rough and bumpy. If you’re not careful, you can easily do damage to your vehicle. I wish the GPS would warn my new driver when there are rough roads ahead—both dirt roads and life circumstances—so she can avoid them.

Currently, we also have some massive road construction on a few different highways in our area. The GPS isn’t always up-to-date with the current road work and closures. Recently, when I was driving home, it told me the exit I needed to take was closed and wanted to route me a different way. But when I reached my exit, it was open, and I was able to take it. I could have easily gone out of my way if I had followed the GPS.

While driving, like in life, you often approach a fork in a road and need direction on which way to go. You know how the GPS lights up the path you need to take? I really wish the highway itself could just light up, so it was perfectly clear which road I need to follow— again, both in driving and in life.

As I hand over the keys to my new driver and teach her to listen to the GPS to guide her, I’m also handing over the keys to the world and praying all the teaching I have done over the previous sixteen years has helped her to be able to hear clearly the voice of God, to tune her ear to his wisdom and direction and be able to discern it from all the other voices that may be trying to steer her wrong.

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” and Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (ESV). These verses give me comfort and peace in trusting I have done my best as a parent.

I recently hung a sign next to our door through which we leave our house:

Before you leave this home

always remember

we love you no matter what.

We believe in you.

Trust your gut.

Follow your heart.

Come home safe.

This is my prayer for my children as I hand over the keys.

Heather Gerwing is living the full life with her husband, Jeff, four kids, and a dog in Metro Detroit. Heather enjoys reading, writing, coffee-ing, and serving in youth ministry. She was born a Jersey girl and feels most at home on a beach. She is the host of the monthly link-up, Share Four Somethings. You can join Heather on the journey to living the full life at www.heathergerwing.com.

Photograph © Meritt Thomas, used with permission