Off to 8th grade.
These years are going quickly. I don’t want to resent them or miss them. It’ll be spring of 2011 before we know it (graduation).
It’s so easy to miss all the weeks and months by holding your breath, waiting for some magic moment in the future when life is slower and more comfortable.
These are the days, fellow parents. Let’s not miss them. Don’t pass up the hug; don’t fail to read the story; don’t wait to pray.
My youngest is 21. I would give almost anything to be picking him up from junior high football practice again. I miss those days everyday. If you all have little ones don’t let even a day go by where you do not take in every moment because in the blink of an eye those moments will be gone. The one good thing though is that they finally get old enough to think you are smart again.
I don’t have kids yet, Mike. But I want to remember this for when I do. Blessings.
Parenthood makes for long days and short years.
My oldest is 9th grade and youngest 6th grade. Life seems like a constant battle, similar to herding cats, but I know I’ll one day look at these as the good ole’ days.
8th grade and 7th grade start for my boys in two weeks. I am amazed at the speed of life. And these days I have found myself praying more and more for them too. Kids need all the help they can get and all the encouraging words they can hear. I want this generation to bless the nations with their lives. They will do greater things for the Kingdom than we can ever do.
Thanks for this gentle reminder Mike. Our 9th grade son is in football and our 7th grade daughter will be playing basketball this fall. While looking at the schedule last night and seeing several nights when each will have games in different towns, I was “whining” a little. Heidi reminded me this is our life now and to relax and enjoy it. As you note, these days will be over every so quickly, so I must cherish each moment today. I think I will take the kids lunch today as this is their last week at home before school.
Thanks again….
These words are from Karen Kingsbury. I read them on a friend’s blog yesterday and was blessed. Hope they bless you too.
“Long ago you came to me, a miracle of firsts…
First smiles and teeth and baby steps, a sunbeam on the burst.
But one day you will move away and leave to me your past,
And I will be left thinking of a lifetime of your lasts.
The last time that I held a bottle to your baby lips…
Last time that I lifted you and held you on my hip…
Last time when you had a binky stuck inside your mouth…
The last time that you crawled across the floor of this old house.
Last time when you ran to me, still small enough to hold,
Last time when you said you’d marry me when you grew old.
Precious, simple moments and bright flashes from the past.
Would I have held you longer if I’d known they were the last?
Your last few hours of kindergarten, last days of first grade…
Last at bat in Little League, last colored paper made.
Last time that I tucked you in for one last midday nap…
Last time when you wore your beat-up Green Bay Packers cap.
The last dark night you slipped in bed and slept between us two,
When last I read to you of God or Horton Hears a Who!
Last that that I smelled your hair and prayed after your shower…
Last time that we held devotions in the evening hours.
Last piano lesson, and last soccer goal you kicked…
The last few weeks of middle school, last flowers that you picked.
Last time that you needed me for rides from here to there…
The last time that you spent the night with that old tattered bear.
Last time that I helped you with a math or spelling test,
Last time when I shouted that your room was still a mess.
Time and life moved quicker, taking pieces of your past.
Would I have stretched the moments if I’d known they were the last?
I watched you grow and never noticed seasons as they passed.
I wish I could’ve frozen time to hold on to your lasts.
For come tomorrow morning life will never be the same,
You’ll pledge forever to your girl and she will take your name.
And I will watch you, knowing God has blessed you with this day.
I never would have wanted, Son, to somehow make you stay.
They say a son’s a son until he takes for him a wife.
You’re grown-up now; it’s time to go and start your brand-new life.
One last hug, one last good-bye, one quick and hurried kiss…
One last time to understand just how much you’ll be missed.
I’ll watch you leave and think how quickly childhood sped past.
Would I have held on longer if I’d known it was your last?”
Two more years of Katy football where we have a real stake in the contest. Michael is a junior, and the weeks are flying. Thank you for the reminders. Of course, I am trying to talk Phyllis into adopting at least one more football player.
Ya’ll are awful!
Just kidding.
My first baby started kindergarten yesterday….and we were doing fine.
Until I read this….now I’m blubbering at work.
Maybe if you take a look at the pictures and lsiten to the audio blog of my girl then you’ll cry along with me? Hey worth a shot, lol.
It goes so quickly. I love the long days and short years quip - how true is that?!?
40 yrs old, raising a baby in the class of ‘23, with more to follow. Those slow and comfortable days are gone, and I love it..every day.
The end of the week we take our oldest to ACU. What a great time in our life. As my wife and I took him out for coffee this morning to extend another blessing we talked of two emotions joy and excitement. The joy we get from seeing him turn out to be the man of God that he becoming, and the excitement of the opportunities he will have that will lead to more growth…then we talked of the other emotion, sadness that we will miss him around our house. Last night we went out and celebrated my youngest daughter’s 14th birthday. What a great time in this period of our family life!
One last comment from reading the other comments. Everyone is talking about being involved in the lives of their kids in sports. How about talking and investing in our kids lives in ministry. Ministry in the neighborhood, with the needy, etc. As a Youth minister for 24 years, I am seeing more and more parents knowing how to invest in the sports, etc but not investing in some of the more important things. I am not ditching the athletics, I have been a coach for the last 12 years and baseball commissioner and on and on. But lets invest in those and ministry opportunities. Then, when our kids leave, their fondest memories won’t only be sports but other things that make a difference in the kingdom. (Sorry for the rant, maybe I am just an old frustrated crusty youth minister!)
A good reminder, Mike. Thanks.
And, an “amen” to Steve Awtrey’s comment on getting kids involved in ministry opportunities. Also a very good reminder.
Steve,
Our oldest is off to ACU this week also. She is so excited, and we pray that she will thrive and grow in these all important years.
David,
We are from LUFKIN, so we are all crazed football junkies. I hope your season goes well. We are in for a wild ride. (2 nationally televised games).
Mike,
Thank you for your post, I get so caught up in the organization of back to school (we also have a 10th grader) that I sometimes forget to enjoy the moment. I find myself saying “I can’t wait until she can drive”. But, I wouldn’t trade those all important car conversations for anything.
Our oldest grandchild, Brooke, is also coming to ACU as a freshman this week. Yea!!!
To those of you with kids not yet driving, I remind you, as did Susan, that those conversations with a car full of kids are priceless. I learned more about my own children’s relationships at school, etc. than they would ever want to discuss with ol’ Mom or Dad. Enjoy!
Thanks for today’s post. I do not have children of my own, but I have 7 very precious nieces and nephews, all grown. The youngest two, my brother’s boys (twins), are heading to college this weekend. One will be studying youth ministry at Oklahoma Christian University and the other will be studying pulpit ministry and communications at Abilene Christian University.
Steve,
Thanks for ranting. I agree. I truly enjoy watching my daughter run track and helping to coach my son’s Little League team (several years ago, now) or watching him play basketball and soccer. And all these activities have contributed to my kids’ growth and maturity and given them opportunities to minister. It even helps me cultivate forbearance…
Yet all the while I cannot help noticing the ways that values and behaviors pretty foreign to the Kingdom typically run free and unchallenged in these venues. My daughter (parent’s pride) seems to care as much about the success and welfare of the other side as she does about her own, but that attitude is pretty rare (even among Christians!) and has gotten her into trouble with coaches.
I guess we deal with anti-Kingdom currents anywhere we are, but it’s a reminder to me never to sit too comfortably with the mainstream school sports culture or with most any of the priorities that our society takes for granted.
Which brings me back to your excellent suggestion — one powerful remedy is to make sure that our kids are involved in serious, sustained, hands-on ministry as a regular part of their lifestyles. Ministry where they are serving others, not themselves or their own purposes, where they have to sacrifice their own resources and benefits for the sake of expressing Christ’s love for the world in some of its purest forms. Making this a priority can be a challenge. Truly cruciform habits don’t easily take root when ministry priorities and spiritual formation activities are allowed to come second place to sports — or to homework, GPAs, entertainment, band trips, etc. — but Christian kids are bombarded all the time with the pressure to do precisely that. Sometimes by their misguided parents.
I have great respect for the kids who are willing to settle for lower rankings, lesser standings, and even a little ostracism because they won’t buy into the prevailing ethos and are willing to make sacrifices for the sake of Kingdom living. Let’s be sure to affirm them in our churches — those are the kinds of habits that need to be praised on Graduation Sunday.
Thanks for the reminder!
EXTREME WISDOM HERE! Let he or she who has ears to hear, hear!
Mike
I thought of your story about celebrating Kindergarten Mom’s today as I sent my son to Kindergarten. One in 5th grade, one in Kindergarten. I have a visual reminder of how time flies at just one Elementary school.
My 10th grader is heading off to school with a new found appreciation for life after a mission trip this summer, a drivers permit, and my prayers that it would all just slow down… a little. I want to enjoy this time with her until college. She’s a great kid.
On another note, the Highland elders prayed a blessing over her and our family 15 years ago when she was born. She continues to be that blessing, along with the 7 th grader and the third grader!!!
Max is off to 9th grade at good ol’ Abilene High today. More importantly (to him) it was day 2 of football practice. Did anyone else notice the humongous rainbow over Abilene High this morning? It was amazing and it sure made dropping him off a whole lot easier.
Those days are all past for me. My sons are now both 23 and are walking their own pathways. Any influence I might have had upon them will either be remembered and acted upon or will be unheeded. Any words I have to say today are simply words of affection, because my advice is given only when asked for, which is rare.
All who have little ones, school aged youngsters, and teens - remember that these days are truly just moments in time and pass all too quickly. Treasure every minute you have with those incredible gifts that God has brought into your lives. The days which sometimes seem interminable will in retrospect have flown by and can never be reclaimed.
What a comfort that the God whose name is YHWH was and is and always will be.
Too late! My two youngest graduated from high school this spring. One is still sticking around, however. Carlamar is so right. Treasure those moments. Teach and discipline with love, but firmly.
On the 27th I take my 5 year old to kindergarten. For him I know the transition will be easy. For me I think I will have an allergy attack or dust may cause my eyes to water jut a bit. Tonite, the family will sleepover at the the church with our Family Promise family. Matthew loves Family Promise week. New friends and sleeping over at the church, totally nothing but good times.
My son is a 3rd semester Senior at ACU this fall, and my youngest turns 21 and is a senior at ACU this fall.
Words of wisdom…hug more often, love a lot and never take them for granted. I would welcome a hug from my son.
Congrats to Chris for a great summer and hopefully a great final ms year. This time next year we’ll have another Warbird.
Steve - I agree with the thought - I just think it’s back-to-school time and your thoughts go to fall activities such as football and school. I think most youth groups had a good mission trip this summer - and I agree we should help our kids focus on others first.
Also known as “gnip-gnop” in this household.
For me, the culmination of all of those years that you don’t want to miss has arrived. I’m off to the “real world” of ACU on Friday. I’m incredibly sad to be leaving my parents and friends but incredibly excited about school and all that I will encounter there. One thing is for sure, after a year of reading your blog, I can’t wait to actually hear you preach.
“Amen” to Steve’s comments!
It doesn’t slow down when kiddos leave the nest…it just keeps getting busier. We’ve left the “Sandwich” generation and are now part of the “Club Sandwich”…with grandkids of our own and also helping care for a parent who fortunately is healthy and alert enough to enjoy these great grandkids of hers!
hard to believe he is already in the 8th grade. Makes me sad we are not there to help out with those kids still. We sure enjoyed our time with them.
Every moment of every day of every child’s life is precious, from their very first cry forward. I tried to savor and hold fast to each one I could because I knew how fleeting they would be, and they were.
My three have now long been grown and scattered but just recently I’ve spent a number of hours with each of them, two by phone over several days’ time and one here in our dining room, discussing life, death, our deepest beliefs about those things and many other connected issues as Tom and I were preparing our wills, etc.
I have to say, as well as I’d always known my kids and as close as we’d stayed connected, I learned some new, very surprising things about each of them that I did not know before. In very good ways.
In thinking back over our past lives - the kids and I - where we all are now and the direction each of us is going, it was very encouraging and uplifting to me to realize the culmination of all of those minutes, hours and years I spent raising them when the times were so hard, the days and nights were so long and I could not see beyond the fatigue and failures I felt were mine in trying to be their mother they most needed.
The key to it all, I deeply believe and know, was in always holding fast to God’s power and love and strength, when I had none of my own, and His guidance when I certainly had no wisdom in my flounderings. I tried to remain as stedfast and true to the Lord as I could in all things, without ever giving up hope for better days ahead for myself and all of my children.
They all stumbled and failed along the way, too, but from their very earliest years I told them always there was never ANYTHING they could not come to me with in their lives, no matter what, or how bad, or how sad, to share with me or to tell me that I would not be there for them.
And I was and I still am and they know that. God does the very same thing for all of us as parents, I know, and will keep us all safe in His care, along with our children, when we turn it all over to Him.
I hope Chris’s 8th grade year will be a great one for him and for you and Diane, Mike. I know it will be. All we who read your words all of the time here know it will be, too, and I pray for each of the rest of you, as well.
Cheers! Dee
Mark’s First Law of Child-Rearing: at every stage in your child’s life, you will be presented with unique challenges and hurts. They do not last; as your child grows, they are replaced with different ones. But, at every stage in your child’s life, there are also unique joys. These do not last either. So, deal with with challenges the best you can, but DON’T FORGET TO SAVOR THE JOYS!
Mike,
You really should get a ClustrMap these things are great. Larry James got one and it’s great to see where his “readers” are. Go to http://clustrmaps.com.
Great reminder for moms like me who are just starting out. Two precious new blessings and some days that drag on and on and on…..:
Finding time to be thankful for new little blessings in the form of tiny hugs and smiles every day, some days are easier than others, eh?
I have a two-year-old and I see the time going by so quickly, even on those looooong days. I like what a woman at our church says to the parents who bring children to her preschool: “These are long days, but short years.” So true.
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