Problem relinquishing control?

I know I do.

My youngest nephew is lazy, to put it charitably. He is absolutely the laziest child I have ever known. And he is allowed to be inactive and unproductive because no one ever taught him what work is, as nothing is ever required of the boy by his parents. No one ever forced him to work, have chores, and understand responsibility. His parents' reasons for allowing this is their own, but it's still tragic.

Today, I was trying to encourage him to pull weeds. He was being forced to "help" by his mother, so while I was standing their watching him "work" I could see it in his actions that he was going to give his minimal effort. He pulled one blade of the really tall grass, although only removing part of the shaft. He continued to do this one by one. Not exactly a Herculean effort to help is mother.

When I showed him a good method of getting the job done easily and quickly, he refused to even try. He would have no part of something that required any real effort. As I kept trying to get him to work, he refused harder and harder until he went running to his mom to complain that the task was just to hard and to request some other easier task to do. I was incredibly frustrated with his cowardice and his mother's acceptance and re-enforcement of his laziness and selfishness. I have talked to her several times in the past about her children lacking any chores or responsibilities and how bad that is for them, yet she has done nothing to fix it, only making it worse by re-enforcing it.

So, as much as I want to fix her children and help them to understand work, responsibilities, and caring about other people, I cannot. I cannot do a thing because it is all and completely up to their mother. How do you allow yourself to accept a situation that is horrible and you feel you have the capacity to solve, yet are absolutely not allowed to? How do you give up any and all control over a situation and are only allowed to observe the final outcome?

The answer is twofold: first, you don't ever give up on trying to help. Any guiding words or acts you could do to improve the situation, you should continue trying to offer them. Second, allow yourself to sit back and let God deal with things. God is good and always has a reason for everything, so just trust in God's providence.

Yes, I know giving up control is hard. I know, really and truly. But sometimes you have to just accept that you cannot influence the outcome. This is when having a strong connection with God is so important, as God will help you with this acceptance and grant you peace of mind.

I still want only what's best for my nephew and my sister, and I'm still going to try to help, but I have to just trust in God's plan. Which I honestly do.