So many things have happened this past week in our family. Our oldest son had his last day of high school. Next week, he has his finals and then he’ll be officially done with high school. I still can’t believe it. It seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital, wondering how he was going to fit into our little family. Shortly following this latest event, our oldest daughter got engaged. Such happy sad feelings. It’s hard to express all the emotions running through my brain even when I knew it was coming.
Proud mama
I am so proud of these two it’s hard to form the words to communicate what I mean. They both bring such unique qualities to our family. I realize this is not the end of our relationship with either child, but wow, such changes! Our son will be moving far away to college, and the daily interactions and conversations will never be the same. Our daughter has been away to college for a couple of years now, but her getting married in the near future is, honestly, daunting. My baby will be a bride. I don’t understand how this is possible! The young man she’s engaged to is thankfully wonderful, and it’s exciting he will be rounding out our family to 5 girls and now 5 boys. But still. So many changes. I just want to hit the pause button on life.
Closing time
It’s funny how “Closing Time” by Semisonic recently came to mind. I hadn’t thought about that song in years. Then all of a sudden, the lyrics clearly rang out in my head: “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” There’s a lot of truth in those few words, especially now.
I’ve always been a mess when handling change. My senior year, I started crying pretty much the first day of class right up until the end. The anticipation was both heart breaking and thrilling. So excited to start “real” life. Yet so sad to not be around my friends and college that I loved so very much.
Life has so many beginnings and endings. It’s inevitable, and good, and hard all at once. I would love to keep all of my kids in my home where I can watch over them and love over them forever. But that is just a selfish mama talking. Our job is to raise the children God has entrusted to us into strong adults who love the LORD and will serve Him. We launch them off into the world, prayerfully asking God to protect and guide them. It’s not easy, but we must learn to let go and let God. We have to, even though it’s one of the hardest things we’ll ever do. It’s all so bittersweet.
Looking back and looking forward
As we walk through life’s endings and beginnings, I pray that we can all look back with joy and look forward with hope. Clearly not every memory will be happy and perfect, and some memories may even be painful. But what’s so amazing is that through it all, we can look back and recognize the LORD has been sovereign in every moment. He can make even the hard stuff into something beautiful when we let Him. He can fill in the gaps we leave and use every bit of our lives for our good and His glory (Rom 8:28).
And as we face the future, we can be filled with hope. The future is rarely neatly laid out for us. And even when we think it is, there will inevitably be a few detours we end up on. Sometimes the future is scary and completely unknown – like walking into a dark room, and then the door shuts behind you. And other times, it seems as if we’re looking at walking through rainbows and sunshine – like the beginning of the Dr. Seuss book, “Oh the places you’ll go!” But when we’re walking with the LORD and we teach our children to do the same, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, we can face it all because of Him Who gives us strength (Phil. 4:13).
Happy sad
I’m so happy sad. But mostly, I’m joyful and thankful that I have had the privilege of being a part of these incredible kids’ lives. I don’t deserve them, but I am so glad that the LORD put them in our lives anyway. He is so good. I look forward with hope to these new beginnings, even as I wistfully think about all the beautiful memories our family has been blessed with. We anxiously anticipate college for our son and marriage for our daughter!
Parents, savor every moment with your children. It goes way, way too quickly. Shape those arrows while you have them with Truth grounded in Scripture. Teach them diligently about what is good, and true, and beautiful. Before you know it, you’ll also be facing a new beginning as another chapter in life ends.
Amen?
