Don't Blink

Matthew 7:24-25, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”

I’m waxing a little bit sentimental, today, and it’s odd in some ways, because this morning I am sitting alone in what was a popular college hang-out when I was college-aged but didn’t go to this University.  Simultaneously, my two oldest children have decided to squeeze in an official college visit at the beginning of their quiz week, and I opted to simply drop them off for this, because we are close… really close… and I would never change that for anything in the entire world, but part of the job of parenting is learning how and when to let go, and today is a letting go day.

We have had rain… and floods… and winds.  Heck, if I’m honest, we have has debilitating lightning strikes, hurricanes and tsunamis, and a tornado or two.  I can remember times (distant and recent) when people have stopped me to tell me how invested they are in watching how my children turn out, because they have been so very incredible, all along (and they really, truly have been)… no pressure… But don’t for one single second think we haven’t waded through the crap, too.

And now, these original two of mine are almost ‘turned out.’  And I like them.

Of course, I recognize that we have entered into an era of extended adolescence, but there is something mind boggling about knowing that this time next year I will be the mother of one legal adult and two high school graduates.  Y’all…  I blinked.

Everyone tells young parents how fast it goes… how much you’re going to miss it… but none of us ever really grasps the reality until whatever ‘it’ is has already gone.  So I’d like to say to young parents, today, “It’s fast.  You’re going to miss it.  But I know you don’t really understand, and that’s OK.”

I hope we’ve built these houses on solid rock.  And, I hope they’ve had the grace to sway in the wind just enough to bend but not break. 

L.