Our Oldest

Another year has been added to the life of my firstborn. I can scarcely believe that he is 19 years old.

Here we are out celebrating his birthday at his favorite restaurant in our small town, Village Pizza

You can tell that he is thrilled about me taking his picture!

I know I say this EVERY time we celebrate another birthday in our family...but really, WHERE does the time go? I guess while they're little it seems as if we'll be in a certain stage of life forever, but it truly does go by faster than we think!

I'm reminded of the words in the song, Don't Blink, by Kenney Chesney. I'm not a big country music fan, but I do like a few songs, like this one, with poignant messages. The chorus goes like this:

     Don't blink

     Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you

     Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife

     Don't blink

     You just might miss your babies growing like mine did

     Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your better half

     Of fifty years is there in bed

     And you're praying God takes you instead

     Trust me friend a hundred years goes by faster than you think

     So don't blink

Lately we've been having some struggles, my oldest and I. I had such a hard time when he moved out for college, and then when he moved back home at Christmas, you'd think I would have been thrilled! I guess the young man that moved back home wasn't exactly the same one who moved out a few months before.

I think it has been a series of power struggles for us...him becoming the independent young man God created him to be, yet me, trying to hold onto his youth and keep him under my wing, so to speak.

Yes, I know there comes a time when I have to really let go...and let God. I thought I had already reached that place, but apparently God is still teaching me how to let go. It hasn't been easy, but I daresay that we have grown in our relationship with each other, as well as with God.

I have two more following closely behind him...

Hopefully, God will help me have this parenting thing all sorted out by the time we reach this point with them. But, most likely, He will not. After all, if I had it all figured out, then I guess I wouldn't need Him. And that would be a sad day, indeed. May I never get to the point where I feel like I don't need God!

I am proud of the godly young man he is becoming, and I am genuinely thankful for the blessing he has been to me. I can see that God has great things in store for him; I can see that God is growing him in wisdom, and in his relationship with Him. I am thankful....