A Definition I Like

I was reading an e-mail today on the subject of mentoring and came across this definition of "Surrendering the outcome to God":

To surrender the outcome to God means acting faithfully through the process, but relinquishing control of the results.

As long as I feel responsible for the outcome of the lives of others, I live in worry. I fret about not being able to manipulate the right outcome. I wonder why I can't force my children to respond to the truth. I sluff off responsibility to pass the baton, rationalizing that "They won't listen to me anyway."

But when I surrender the outcome to God, fear melts away. If I'm confident that God will bring about the outcome that pleases him, I'm free to stop wheedling and manipulating and cajoling. I'm free to let God open the floodgates of blessing if he chooses to do so.

The e-mail came from the Passing the Baton ministry, which can be reached here.